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COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY    STUDIES    IN    ENGLISH 
AND    COMPARATIVE    LITERATURE 


BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 


COLUMBIA 

UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

SALES  AGENTS 

NEW  YORK : 

LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 
30-32  West  27TH  Street 

LONDON  : 
HENRY  FROWDE 
Amen  Corner,  E.G. 

TORONTO  : 

HENRY  FROWDE 

25  Richmond  Street,  W. 


LORD    BYRON   AS  A  SATIRIST  IN 
VERSE 


BY 

CLAUDE  M.  FUESS 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements 

FOR  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the 

Faculty  of  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
1912 


353  K 


Copyright,   19 12 
By  Columbia  University  Press 

Printed  from  type,  July,  1912 
All  rights  reserved 


This  Monograph  has  been  approved  by  the  Department  of 
English  and  Comparative  Literature  in  Columbia  University  as  a 
contribution  to  knowledge  worthy  of  publication. 

A.  H.   THORNDIKE, 

Secretary. 


254231 


^0 
MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 

This  dissertation  is  an  out-growth  of  some  studies  in 
English  satire,  particularly  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
the  book  is  to  be  regarded  merely  as  a  chapter  in  the 
history  of  English  satiric  poetry  as  a  whole.  The  initial 
suggestion  for  this  special  phase  of  the  broader  subject 
came  from  Professor  W.  P.  Trent,  to  whose  wide  scholar- 
ship and  suggestive  comment  I  have  been  throughout 
under  great  obligation.  Professor  A.  H.  Thorndike,  who, 
with  Professor  Trent,  read  the  work  in  manuscript,  con- 
tributed valuable  advice  regarding  its  arrangement  and 
contents  ;  while  Professor  J.  B.  Fletcher  was  of  much 
assistance  in  criticising  the  sections  dealing  with  Byron's 
indebtedness  to  the  ItaHan  poets.  My  colleague,  Mr.  A. 
W.  Leonard,  read  the  first  two  chapters,  and  offered  much 
aid  in  connection  with  their  style  and  structure.  It  is  a 
pleasure  to  acknowledge  the  stimulus  given  by  my  studies 
under  various  members  of  the  Departments  of  English  and 
Comparative  Literature  at  Columbia  University,  among 
them  the  late  Professor  G.  R.  Carpenter,  Professor  W.  A. 
Neilson,  now  at  Harvard,  Mr.  J.  E.  Spingarn,  and  Pro- 
fessors Krapp,  Lawrence,  and  Matthews. 

C.  M.  F. 

Phillips  Academy,  Andover, 
June  ig,  igi2. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PARE 

I. — Introductory i 

II. — English  Satire  from  Dryden  to  Byron     .  lo 

III. — Byron's  Early  Satiric  Verse     ...  39 

IV. — "  English  Bards,  and  Scotch  Reviewers"  48 

V. — "  Hints  from  Horace"  and  "The  Curse 

OF  Minerva  " 77 

VI.— The  Period  of  Transition  ....  93 

VII. — The  Italian  Influence        .        .        .        .113 

VIII.—"  Don  Juan  " 163 

IX.— "  The  Vision  of  Judgment  "        .        .        .188 

X.—"  The  Age  of  Bronze  "  and  "  The  Blues  "  202 

XI. — Conclusion 210 

Bibliography 219 

Index 225 


Lord   Byron  as   a   Satirist 
in  Verse 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Byron's  puzzling  character  and  fascinating  career  have 
been  tempting  themes  for  many  biographers,  Uttle  and 
great,  from  Sir  Egerton  Brydges  and  Tom  Moore  to  Pro- 
fessor Emil  Koeppel  and  Mr.  Richard  Edgcumbe.  His 
Hterary  product,  too,  has  been,  for  the  most  part,  so  care- 
fully and  exhaustively  treated  by  the  critics  of  many 
nationalities  that  there  is  small  excuse  for  adding  one  more 
volume  to  a  bibliography  already  so  comprehensive.  It 
happens,  however,  that  though  his  contribution  to  satiric 
poetry  was  extensive  and  important,  his  actual  work  in  that 
field  has  been  made  the  subject  of  no  intensive  stud3^  It  is 
the  object  of  this  essay  to  fill  this  gap  by  considering,  so  far 
as  it  is  possible  in  a  brief  treatise,  the  special  qualities 
which  distinguish  Byron's  satiric  spirit,  and  by  analyzing 
and  classifying  the  modifications  of  that  spirit  as  they  are 
shown  in  his  poetry.  The  wide  range  of  material  to  be 
investigated  naturally  precludes  any  attention  to  the  events 
of  his  life,  except  when  these  throw  light  on  the  inception  or 

I 


2  LORD   !3VRC)>i. 'AS  .A    SATIRIST    IN    VERSE 

composition  of  particular  satires.  Nor  is  it  practicable 
to  devote  any  space,  except  by  way  of  illustration  or  refer- 
ence, to  his  poetry  in  general,  or  to  his  letters  and  prose 
pamphlets.  The  scope  of  the  dissertation  will  be  restricted 
to  include  a  discussion  only  of  his  satire  in  verse. 

The  lamentable  absence  of  any  established  body  of  cri- 
teria available  as  a  basis  for  the  study  of  satire  is  a  difficulty 
which  must  be  recognized  and  met  at  the  very  outset. 
First  of  all,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  make  clear  just 
what  matter  is  to  be  included  under  the  rather  vague  head- 
ing, satire.  Broadly  speaking,  satire  comprises  any  manifes- 
tation of  the  satiric  spirit  in  literature ;  but  this  statement 
is  really  evasive,  since  the  satiric  spirit,  like  the  roman- 
tic spirit,  is  intangible  and  not  susceptible  to  precise  defi- 
nition. In  general,  as  Professor  Tucker  has  pointed  out, 
the  essential  feature  of  the  satiric  spirit,  wherever  found, 
is  its  disposition  to  tear  down  and  destroy.  Variations  in 
temper  and  aim  may  exist  in  different  satinsts;  other  sub- 
servient emotions  may  appear  and  other  feelings  may  oper- 
ate, in  individual  cases,  to  modify  the  underlying  mood ; 
but  fundamentally  the  satiric  spirit  is  negative  and  pessi- 
mistic. '  It  furthers  disillusion  by  confronting  romance 
jvithrealism  and  fiction  with  fact.  The  satirist  thus  per- 
ceives ana  exposes  incongruity,"~the  discrepancy  between 
profession  and  performance.  He  is  actuated  always  by  a 
destructive  motive,  and  it  is  his  function  to  condemn  and  to 
reprove. 

Humor  is,  of  course,  usually  a  concomitant  of  satire,  but 

'  That  satire  is  primarily  destructive  criticism  was  asserted  by  Hein- 
sius  in  a  familiar  passage  quoted  approvingly  by  Dr>^dcn  in  his  Essay 
on  Satire: — "  Satire  is  a  kind  of  poetry — in  which  human  vices,  ignorance, 
and  errors,  and  all  things  besides,  which  are  produced  from  them  in 
every  man,  are  severely  reprehended."  The  same  theory  is  expressed 
by  De  Gubernatis  in  his  Storia  della  Satira: — "La  satirafe,  sovra  ogni 
cosa,  una  negazione." 


/ 

INTRODUCTION 


authorities  differ  as  to  its  value.  Dryden,  considering  the 
question  from  the  standpoint  of  the  literary  artist,  says : — 
"The  nicest  and  most  delicate  touches  of  satire  consist  in 
fine  raillery."  Gifford,  posing  as  a  moralist,  takes  another 
position: — "To  raise  a  laugh  at  vice  is  not  the  legitimate 
office  of  satire,  which  is  to  hold  up  the  vicious,  as  objects  of 
reprobation  and  scorn,  for  the  example  of  others,  who  may 
be  deterred  by  their  sufferings."  When  humor  is  wanting 
and  the  mood  is  entirely  vituperative,  the  result  is  invec- 
tive, which  some  critics  are  desirous  of  excluding  arbitrarily 
from  satire.  But  however  advantageous  it  may  be,  for 
practical  reasons,  to  limit  the  application  of  the  word  satire, 
it  is  difficult  to  neglect  invective;  and  in  this  essay,  since 
a  considerable  part  of  Byron's  so-called  satire  is  sheer  abuse, 
failure  to  treat  that  portion  of  hjs_work  would  result  in 
much  c^nf-ttsioTr:  An~additional  argument  for  including 
invective  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  to  pass  it  over  would 
mean  relegating  outside  the  domain  of  satire  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  work  of  other  authors  who  have  always  been 
classed  as  satirists,  among  them  Churchill  and  Gifford. 

Nor  is  it  possible  to  insist  upon  the  reformatory  purpose 
behind  the  satiric  spirit.  Dryden's  dictum  that  the  sati- 
rist "is  bound,  and  that  is  ex  officio,  to  give  his  reader  some 
one  precept  of  moral  virtue,"  commendable  as  it  may  be, 
has  been  by  no  means  a  universal  law  for  satire,  and  one  is 
forced  to  admit  that  whatever  emphasis  particular  satirists 
may  have  given  to  this  rule  in  theory,  the  common  practice 
has  too  often  been  at  variance  with  it.  Ultimately  the 
single  indispensable  element  of  the  satiric  spirit  is  the  wish 
to  deny,  rebuke,  or  destroy. 

It  is  evident  that  the  satiric  spirit  may  show  itself,  to  a 
certain  extent,  in  nearly  every  known  type  of  literature, 
even  at  times  in  the  epic  or  the  lyric,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
prose  essay  or  novel.  The  specific  term  satire  ought,  how- 
ever, to  be  applied  solely  to  a  work  in  which  the  predomina- 


4  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

ting  motive  is  attack,  whether  on  individuals,  on  institutions, 
or  on  mankind  in  general.  Thus  we  say  that  Childe  Harold 
has  satiric  features;  but  it  is  not,  like  The  Age  of  Bronze, 
strictly  a  satire.  For  present  purposes,  too,  it  is  desirable 
to  narrow  the  field  definitely  by  discussing  the  satiric  spirit 
only  so  far  as  it  has  chosen  verse  for  its  medium,  and  by  dis- 
carding the  drama  as  belonging  to  another  department  of 
research.  The  subject  may  be  further  confined  by  neg- 
lecting poems  which  are  obviously  unliterary  and  make  no 
pretensions  to  constructive  or  stylistic  merit.  The  title 
verse-satire  will  be  used  loosely  to  fit  any  fonnal  literary 
production  in  verse  devoted  ostensibly  to  negative  criti- 
cism, whether  direct  or  indirect,  animated  by  sympathy 
or  hatred;  in  short,  to  any  non-dramatic  poem,  whatever  its 
method,  which  has  for  its  principal  or  avowed  object  the 
holding  of  vice,  folly,  or  incapacity  up  to  ridicule  or  repro- 
bation. In  Byron's  work  there  are  many  poems  containing 
slight  satiric  elements,  and  others  which  are  plainly 
satires  in  the  narrower  sense  of  the  term ;  some  are  conven- 
iently labelled,  while  others  must  be  tested  with  regard  to 
their  intention  and  manner,  and  classified  accordingly. 

Our  not  altogether  adequate  definition  has  been  inten- 
tionally made  broad  that  it  may  comprise  any  formal  expres- 
sion of  the  satiric  spirit  in  verse.  The  verse-satire  as  thus 
described  may  select  its  material  from  every  province  of 
human  activity:  literature,  society,  politics,  and  morals. 
It  may  range  in  tone  from  half-tolerant  raillery,  as  in  the 
Satires  of  Horace,  to  stem  intolerant  invective,  as  in  the 
Satires  of  Juvenal.  Its  metliod  may  be  either  direct  or 
indirect :  direct,  as  in  the  formal  classical  satire,  in  which  the 
purpose  is  distinctly  stated;  indirect,  or  dramatic,  as  in  the 
fable,  where  the  same  end  is  sought  through  a  more  subtle 
or  less  obvious  channel.  Finally  it  may  appear  in  one  of 
several  specialized  types,  each  with  peculiar  characteristics 
of  its  own :  the  so-called  formal  or  classical  satire,  based  on 


INTRODUCTION  5 

Latin,  French,  or  Italian  models,  represented  in  English 
literature  in  the  poetry  of  Hall,  Oldham,  and  Pope;  the 
mock4ieroic^  sometimes  directly  satiric  as  in  Pope's  Diin- 
ciad,  sometimes  indirectly  so,  as  in  his  Rape  of  the  Lock;  the 
epigram  and  lampooji,  used  by  Prior  and  Swift;  the  po- 
litical ballad  or  song,  illustrated  in  the  verse  of  Marvell  and 
Charles  Hanbury  Williams;  the  satiric  fable,  borrowed  by 
Yalden,  Gay,  Whitehead,  and  others  from  ^Esop  and  La 
Fontaine;  and  the  burlesgue,  with  its  two  subdivisions — 
parody,  used  in  Philips'  Splendid  Shilling,  which  inten- 
tionally degrades  the  blank  verse  of  Milton,  and  travesty, 
illustrated  in  Byron's  Vision  of  Judgment,  which  gives  an 
inferior  treatment  to  lofty  material.  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  add  that  these  types,  with  others  of  less  significance,  con- 
tinually encroach  upon  each  other,  so  that  two  or  more  are 
frequently  mingled  in  one  poem.  The  single  feature  com- 
mon to  them  all,  however,  is  the  tendency  to  deride  or 
assail;  therefore,  in  spite  of  their  many  superficial  differ- 
ences, they  are  classed  together  because  of  their  general 
tone  of  negation. 

A  consideration  of  Byron's  satiric  spirit  as  it  is  shown  in 
his  verse  involves  an  investigation  of  the  objects  of  his 
attack,  whether  individuals,  classes,  or  institutions,  and  a 
discussion  of  the  relation  of  his  satire  to  contemporary  Hfe 
in  literature,  society,  politics,  and  morals.  It  also  necessi- 
tates a  study  of  the  forms  which  he  adopted,  the  methods 
which  he  utilized,  and  the  manner  which  he  was  incHned  to 
assume.  Something  ought  also  to  be  said  of  his  indebted- 
ness to  other  satirists,  Latin,  English,  and  Italian,  and  of 
his  place  and  influence  in  the  evolution  of  English  satire. 
Lastly,  a  summary  is  required  of  the  peculiar  characteristics 
which  distinguish  his  satiric  spirit  and  make  his  work  dis- 
tinctive or  unique. 

Sir  Walter  Scott's  generous  assertion  that  his  rival 
"embraced  every  topic  in  human  life"  is,  of  course,  hyper- 


6  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

bole;  but  one  may  be  permitted  to  suspect  that  the  variety 
and  compass  of  Byron's  genius  have  not  always  been  suf- 
ficiently dwelt  upon.  Even  sympathetic  critics  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  forgetting  that  in  all  three  of  what  are  ordi- 
narily reckoned  the  chief  divisions  of  poetry — the  narrative, 
the  lyrical,  and  the  dramatic — Byron  achieved  distinct 
success.  The  same  may  be  said  of  his  attempts  at  poetry 
of  a  descriptive  and  meditative  sort.  That  Manfred  and 
Beppo,  Childe  Harold  and  "She  walks  in  beauty  like  the 
night,''  bear  the  same  writer's  signature  is  convincing  proof 
not  only  of  the  fecundity  but  also  of  the  diverseness  of  his 
talent.  What  is  true  of  his  work  as  a  whole  is  also  true  of 
his  satire.  It  is  to  be  found  in  several  forms:  the  satiric 
tale,  the  formal  or  classical  satire,  the  travesty,  the  epi- 
gram, and  the  mock-heroic.  It  is  sometimes  scurrilous, 
sometimes  didactic,  and  sometimes  playful.  It  carries  its 
attack  into  many  fields:  into  literature  in  English  Bards; 
into  society  in  The  Waltz;  into  poHtics  in  The  Age  of  Bronze; 
and  into  morals  in  Don  Juan.  Finally  in  Don  Juan,  his 
longest  and  most  important  poem,  the  satiric  spirit  blends 
with  other  elements,  romantic,  tragic,  realistic,  and  collo- 
quial, to  produce  what  Paul  Elmer  More  calls  "to  many 
critics  the  greatest  Satire  ever  written." 

Professor  Courthope  traces  throughout  Byron's  poetry 
three  main  currents  of  feehng:  the  romance  of  the  dilet- 
tante, the  indignation  of  the  satirist,  and  the  lyrical  utter- 
ance of  the  man  himself.  Of  these  three  emotions, 
continues  the  critic,  one  comes  in  turn  to  predominate  over 
the  others  at  different  periods,  as  external  circumstances 
affect  the  poet.  This  analysis  is,  on  the  whole,  discerning 
and  uncontrovertible;  but  despite  the  fact  that  Byron  so 
often  ventured  into  romantic  and  lyric  poetry,  there  is  good 
cause  for  maintaining  that  his  mind  was  primarily  satiric 
in  its  observation  of  life.  If  we  accept  the  testimony  of  his 
nurse,  May  Gray,  as  it  was  taken  down  by  Moore,  Byron's 


INTRODUCTION  7 

first  lisping  in  numbers  was  in  the  nature  of  satire,  being  a 
short  lampoon  on  an  old  lady  who  had  irritated  him  by  her 
curious  notions  regarding  the  destination  of  the  soul  after 
death. '  These  verses,  according  to  May  Gray,  date  from 
1798,  when  the  boy  was  ten  years  old.  During  the  ensuing 
years  he  engaged  in  writing  satire,  without  many  intermis- 
sions, until  his  career  closed  in  1824  with  Don  Juan  still 
unfinished.  In  no  other  branch  of  literature  was  he  led  to 
undertake  such  a  series  of  poems  through  so  long  a  period. 
His  narrative  poetry  cannot  be  said  to  have  begun  before 
Childe  Harold  (18 12);  as  a  dramatist  he  published  nothing 
anterior  to  Manfred  (1817) ;  and  even  his  lyrics  appeared  at 
infrequent  intervals  and  in  no  great  numbers.  During 
most  of  his  life,  on  the  other  hand,  he  engaged  in  satire  of 
one  kind  or  another.  The  Curse  of  Minerva  was  brought 
back  from  his  early  travels,  along  with  the  first  two  cantos 
of  Childe  Harold;  The  Waltz  is  almost  synchronous  with  the 
Giaour;  and  The  Vision  of  Judgment  was  being  planned 
while  he  was  composing  Cain.  Even  in  the  period  between 
the  Waltz  (18 13)  and  Beppo  (18 18),  during  which  no  long 
verse-satire  of  his  was  published,  he  wrote  The  Devil's 
Drive  (181 2,),  Windsor  Poetics  (18,14),  and  A  Sketch  (1816), 
besides  other  shorter  epigrams.  Thus  Byron's  satiric  spirit 
was  persistent  and  conspicuous  from  the  date  of  Fugitive 
Pieces  (1806)  until  his  death  eighteen  years  later. 

The  position  which  Byron  occupies  in  the  history  of     j 
English  satire  is  especially  important  because  he  is,  in  many    v.^ 
respects,  the  last  of  the  powerful  satirists  in  verse.     English 
Bards,  and  Scotch  Reviewers,  published  in  March,  1809,  is      ' 
perhaps  the  last  of  the  great  English  satires  in  the  heroic 
couplet  measure.     It  is  a  final  vigorous  outburst  in  the 
genre  which,  originating  possibly  with  Wyatt,  and  improved 
by  Donne  and  Hall,  culminated  in  the  satires  of  Dryden, 
and  then  passing  successively  through  the  hands  of  Pope, 

^  See  Poetry,  VII,  I. 


8  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IX  VERSE 

Churchill,  and  Gifford,  underwent  many  modifications, 
and  seemed,  down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  to 
be  losing  gradually  in  universality  and  permanent  value. 
The  revival  in  which  Byron  took  part,  but  which,  as  we  shall 
see,  was  not  altogether  occasioned  by  him,  was  spasmodic 
and  temporary ;  and  in  the  hundred  years  since  the  appear- 
ance of  English  Bards,  our  literature  has  produced  no  single 
satire  in  the  same  manner  worthy  of  being  placed  by  the  side 
of  the  Dunciad,  the  Rosciad,  or  even  the  Baviad.  Byron 
himself,  though  he  continued  to  write  this  sort  of  satire  up 
to  the  time  of  The  Age  of  Bronze,  never  equalled  his  early 
success.  Eventually  he  turned  from  his  standard  models, 
Pope  and  Gifford,  and  under  the  inspiration  of  Italy  and 
Italian  authors,  made  his  chief  original  contribution  to 
satire  in  Beppo,  Don  Juan,  and  The  Vision  of  Judgment.  He 
thus,  in  a  significant  way,  closes  and  sums  up  the  work  of 
an  old  and  passing  school,  at  the  same  time  bringing  into 
English  satire  the  infusion  of  a  new  spirit  and  method. 

With  these  facts  in  view,  it  is  convenient  and  not  illogical 
to  arrange  the  major  part  of  Byron's  satiric  verse  into  two 
distinct  groups.  The  one,  deeply  rooted  in  classical  and 
English  tradition,  conforming  to  established  conventions 
and  obeying  precedents  well  understood  in  our  language, 
includes  English  Bards,  Hints  from  Horace,  The  Curse  of 
Minerva,  The  Waltz,  and  The  Age  of  Bronze,  besides  other 
works  shorter  and  less  noteworthy.  The  other,  retaining 
something  of  the  "saeva  indignatio"  of  Juvenal  and  Swift, 
but  embodying  it  in  what  may  be  called,  for  want  of  a  better 
term,  the  Italian  burlesque  spirit — that  mood  which,  vary- 
ing in  individual  authors,  but  essentially  the  same,  prevails 
in  the  poetry  of  Pulci,  Berni,  and  Casti — comprises  Beppo, 
Don  Juan,  and  The  Vision  of  Judgment.  Generally  speak- 
ing, this  division  on  the  basis  of  sources  corresponds  to  a 
difference  in  metre :  the  classical  satires  employ,  almost  from 
necessity,  the  iambic  pentameter  couplet,  while  those  in  the 


INTRODUCTION  9 

Italian  manner  adopt  the  exotic  ottava  rima.  This  classi- 
fication is  also  partly  chronological,  for  the  English  satires, 
with  the  exception  of  The  Age  of  Bronze  and  some  short  epi- 
grams, were  written  before  1817,  and  the  Italian  satires 
appeared  during  the  eight  years  following  that  date,  while 
Byron  was  in  Italy  and  Greece. 

The  numerous  ballads,  political  verses,  and  personal 
epigrams,  some  printed  in  the  daily  newspapers,  others  sent 
in  letters  to  his  friends,  constitute  another  interesting  group 
of  satires,  about  which,  however,  no  very  satisfactory  gen- 
eralizations can  be  made.  There  are  also  lines  and  passages 
of  a  satiric  nature  in  other  poems,  but  these,  casual  as  they 
are,  need  to  be  mentioned  only  because  of  their  connection 
with  ideas  advanced  in  the  genuine  Verse-Satires,  or  because 
of  some  especial  interest  attaching  to  them. 

In  taking  up  the  separate  poems  included  in  this  mass 
of  material  it  seems  best  to  observe,  as  far  as  practicable, 
a  chronological  order,  for  by  so  doing,  we  may  observe  the 
steady  growth  and  broadening  of  Byron's  ability  as  a  sati- 
rist, and  trace  his  connection  with  the  events  of  his  time. 
However,  before  proceeding  directly  to  an  analysis  of  the 
poet's  work  and  methods,  it  is  necessary  to  say  something 
of  his  predecessors  in  EngHsh  satire,  from  many  of  whom 
he  derived  so  much. 


CHAPER  II 
ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON 

Enough  has  been  said  to  hint  that  Byron's  quahties  as 
a  satirist  in  verse  are  often  best  to  be  explained  by  a  refer- 
ence to  the  methods  and  influence  of  those  who  went  before 
him.  So  far  as  his  connection  with  English  satire  is  con- 
cerned, Byron  was  indebted  in  part  to  a  widespread  and 
somewhat  conventional  satiric  tradition  established  by 
Pope  and  in  part  also  to  the  special  characteristics  of  certain 
individual  satirists  like  Gifford.  Unfortunately  the  field  of 
English  satire  has  been  investigated  carefully  only  to  the 
close  of  the  Elizabethan  era;  it  is,  therefore,  imperative  to 
present,  as  a  working  basis,  a  brief  outHne  of  the  course  of 
satiric  verse  during  the  century  or  more  prior  to  Byron's 
own  age.  Such  a  summary  being  of  value  here  chiefly  as 
affording  material  for  comparison,  detailed  treatment  need 
be  given  only  to  the  more  conspicuous  figures,  particularly 
to  those  to  whom  it  is  possible  Byron  was  under  obligation. 

The  years  between  the  accession  of  Charles  II  and  the 
death  of  Pope  saw  a  remarkable  advance  in  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  published  satiric  work,  in  both  prose  and 
verse.  For  this  development  several  causes  may  be  assigned. 
As  the  romantic  enthusiasm  of  the  Renaissance  died  away 
or  exhausted  itself  in  fantastic  extravagance  and  license, 
the  new  age,  in  reaction,  became  gradually  more  reasonable 
and^practical.  Its  general  tendencies  were  academic,  intro- 
spective, and  critical:  literature  began  to  analyze  itself  and 
to  frame  laws  for  its  own  guidance;  societv  found  amuse- 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  II 

ment  in  laughing  at  its  own  follies  and  frivolities ;  moralists 
were  occupied  in  censuring  misbehaviour  and  in  codifying 
maxims  for  the  government  of  conduct./"  This  critical 
spirit,  whenever  it  became  destructive,  naturally  sought 
expression  in  satire,  Party  feeling,  too,  grew  violent  in 
dealing  with  the  complex  problems  raised  by  the  bloodless 
revolution  of  1689  and  its  aftermath;  moreover,  most  of  the 
prominent  writers  of  the  da3^  gathered  as  they  were  in  Lon- 
don, allied  themselves  with  either  Whigs  or  Tories  and 
engaged  vigorously  in  the  factional  warfare.  In  the  urban 
and  gregarious  life  of  the  age  of  Anne,  the  thinkers  who 
sharpened  their  wits  against  one  another  in  clubs  and  coffee- 
houses esteemed  logic  and  good  sense  higher  than  romantic 
fancy.  Their  talk  and  writing  dealt  mainly  with  practical 
affairs,  with  particular  features  of  political  and  social  life. 
It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  this  critical  and  practical 
period  should  have  found  its  most  satisfactory  expression 
in  satire — a  literary  type  which  is  well  fitted  to  treat  of 
definite  and  concrete  questions. 

Before  1700  interest  in  English  satire  centres  inevitably 
around_the  name  of  Dry  den.  Among  his  contemporaries 
"were,  of  course,  other  satirists,  some  of  them  distinguished 
by  originality  and  genius.  The  true  political  satire,  used 
so  effectively  against  the  Parliamentarians  by  Cleveland 
(1613-1658),  had  been  revived  in  the  work  of  Denham 
(1615-1669)  and  Marvell  (1621-1678).  Formal  satire  in 
the  manner  of  Juvenal  and  Boileau  had  been  attempted 
by  Oldham  (1653- 1683)  in  his  Satires  against  the  Jesuits 
(1678-9).  Moreover,  several  new  forms  had  been  intro- 
duced: Butler  ( 1 612-1680)  in  Hiidibras  (1663)  had  created 
an  original  variety  of  burlesque,  with  unusual  rhymes, 
grotesque  similes,  and  quaint  ideas;  Cotton  (i 630-1 687)  in 
his  Scarronides  (1664)  had  transplanted  the  travesty  from 
the  French  of  Scarron;  and  Garth  (1661-1719)  had  com- 
posed in  the  Dispensary  (1699)  our  earliest  classical  mock- 


12  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

heroic.  Marvell,  Rochester,  Sedley,  Dorset,  and  others 
had  written  songs  and  ballads  of  a  satiric  character,  most 
of  them  coarse  and  scurrilous.  But  the  work  of  these  men. 
like  that  of  their  predecessors  in  satire,  Lodge,  Donne,  Hall, 
Marston,  Guilpin,  Wither,  and  Brome,  is,  as  a  whole,  crude 
and  inartistic,  rough  in  metre  and  commonplace  in  style. 
Dryden,  who  took  up  satire  at  the  age  of  fifty,  after  a  long 
and  thorough  discipHne  in  literary  craftsmanship,  avoided 
these  faults,  and  polished  and  improved  the  verse-satire, 
preserving  its  vigor  while  lending  it  refinement  and  dignity. 

Dryden's  satire  is  distinguished  by  clearness,  good  taste, 
and  self-control,  i  The  author  was  seldom  in  a  rage,  nor  was 
he  ever  guilty  of  indiscriminate  railing^.  Seeking  to  make 
his  victims  ridiculous  and  absurd  rather  than  hateful,  he 
drew  them,  not  as  monsters  or  unnatural  villains,  but  as 
foohsh  or  weak  human  beings. '  It  is  significant,  too,  that 
he  did  not  often  mention  his  adversaries  by  their  real  names, 
but  referred  to  them,  for  the  most  part,  by  pseudon^'ms,  a 
device  through  which  individual  satire  tends  constantly  to 
become  typical  and  universal.  Although  he  asserted  that 
"the  true  end  of  satire  is  the  amendment  of  vices  by  correc- 
tion," he  rarely,  except  in  poems  which  were  designedly 
theological,  permitted  a  moral  purpose  to  become  obtrusive. 

DeHberately  putting  aside  the  octos3dlabic  metre  of  But- 
ler as  too  undignified  for  satire,  Dryden  chose  what  he 
called  the  "English  heroic,"  or  iambic  pentameter  couplet, 
as  best  suited  to  heroic  poetry,  of  which  he  considered  satire 
to  be  properly  a  species.  This  measure,  already  employed 
by  Hall,  Donne,  and  others  as  a  medium  for  satire,  is,  as 
Dryden  perceived,  admirably  suited  for  concise  and  pointed 
expression.     Having  used  it  successfully  in  his  plays,  he 

'  In  the  Preface  to  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  Dryden  is  inclined  to  take 
pride  in  his  fairness: — "I  have  but  laughed  at  some  men's  foUies,  when 
I  could  have  declaimed  against  their  vices;  and  other  men's  virtues  I 
have  commended,  as  freely  as  I  have  taxed  their  crimes." 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  1 3 

was  already  familiar  with  its  possibilities  and  skilful  in  its 
management,  and  in  his  hands  it  became  harmonious, 
varied,  and  incisive,  a  very  different  measure  from  the 
couplet  as  handled  by  even  so  near  a  contemporary  as 
Oldham. 

Excellent  as  Dryden's  satires  are,  they  cannot  be  said  to 
have  had  an  influence  proportionate  to  their  merit.  Defoe's 
True-horn  Englishman  (1701),  probably  the  most  popular 
satire  between  Absalom  and  Achitophel  and  the  Dunciad, 
did  undoubtedly  owe  much  to  Dryden's  work;  and  it  is  also 
true  that  MacFlecknoe  suggested  the  plot  of  the  Dunciad. 
During  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  Dryden's  satires 
were  not  extensively  imitated,  chiefly  because  they  were 
superseded  as  models  by  the  work  of  Pope.  Of  the  satirists 
after  Pope,  only  Churchill  seems  to  have  preferred  Dryden, 
and  even  he  followed  the  principles  of  Pope  in  practice. 
Thus  historically  Dryden  is  of  less  importance  in  the  history 
of  satire  than  his  successor  and  rival. 

In  the  period  between  the  death  of  Dryden  and  the  death 
of  Pope,  satirists  labored  assiduously  for  correctness.  The 
importance  of  this  step  can  hardly  be  overestimated,  for 
satire,  more  perhaps  than  any  other  literary  type,  is  depen- 
dent on  style  for  its  permanency.  Its  subject  matter  is 
usually  concerned  with  transitory  events  and  specific  indi- 
viduals, and  when  the  interest  in  these  subsides,  nothing 
but  an  excellent  form  can  ensure  the  durability  of  the  satire. 
Of  this  endeavor  for  artistic  perfection  in  satire.  Pope  is  the 
completest  representative. 

Pope  boasted  repeatedly  that  he  had  "moralized  his 
song";  that  is,  that  he  had  employed  his  satire  for  definite 
ethical  purposes.  In  an  invocation  to  Satire,  He  put  into 
verse  his  theory  of  its  proper  use : — 

"O  sacred  weapon!  left  for  Truth's  defence, 
Sole  Dread  of  Folly,  Vice,  and  Insolence! 


14  LORD  nVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

To  all  but  Heav'n  directed  hands  deny'd, 

The  Muse  may  j^nve  thee,  but  the  Gods  must  guide; 

Rev'rent  I  touch  thee!  but  with  honest  zeal, 

To  rouse  the  Watchmen  of  the  public  Weal."' 

The  lofty  tone  of  this  address  ouj^ht  not,  however,  to 
obscure  the  fact  that  Pope  was  primarily  a  personal  satirist, 
actuated  too  often  merely  by  the  desire  to  satisfy  his  private 
quarrels.  His  claim  to  being  an  agent  for  the  cause  of 
public  virtue  is  sometimes  justified  in  his  work,  but  not 
infrequently  it  is  but  a  thin  pretence  for  veiling  his  under- 
lying malice  and  vindictiveness.  What  Pope  really  wanted, 
most  of  all,  in  his  satires,  was  to  damage  the  reputation  of  his 
foes;  and,  it  must  be  added,  he  generally  achieved  his  aim. 

Pope  was  both  less  scrupulous  and  more  personal  than 
Dryden.  He  appropriated  Dryden's  method  of  presenting 
portraits  of  well-known  persons  under  type-names;  but 
unlike  Dryden,  who  had  preserved  a  semblance  of  fairness, 
Pope  was  too  often  merely  vituperative  and  savage.  He 
seldom  attained  that  high  variety  of  satire  which  plans  "to 
attack  a  man  so  that  he  feels  the  attack  and  half  acknow- 
ledges its  justice."^  Unlike  Dryden,  too,  he  rarely  mas- 
tered the  difficult  art  of  turning  the  individual  objects  of 
his  scorn  into  representatives  of  a  broader  class.  His  per- 
sonal sketches  do  not,  except  in  a  few  instances  like  the 
celebrated  Atticus,  live  as  pictures  of  types. 

Pope,  moreover,  was  not  always  discreet  enough  to  mask 
his  opponents  under  pseudonyms.  Sometimes,  following  a 
device  introduced  into  English  satire  by  Hall,  he  used  an 
initial  letter,  with  dashes  or  asterisks  to  fill  out  the  name. 
More  often  he   printed   the   name  in  full.^     He   had  no 

'  Epilogue  to  the  Satires,  Dialogue  II.,  212-217. 
'  See  Chesterton's  Pope  and,  the.  A  rt  nf Satire-. 
3  Both  methods  are  illustrated  in  a  line  of  the  Dunciad: — 
"My  H — ley's  periods,  or  my  Blackmore's  numbers." 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  1 5 

scruples  about  making  attacks  on  women,  a  practice  not 
countenanced  by  Dryden.'  In  his  satire  on  personal 
enemies  he  was  insolent  and  offensive:  however,  he  seldom 
gave  vent  to  his  rage,  but  kept  cool,  revised  and  polished 
every  epithet,  and  retorted  in  a  calm,  searching  dissection 
of  character.  In  his  methods  he  was  unprincipled,  never 
hesitating  to  make  the  vilest  charges  if  they  served  his 
purposes. 

In  matters  of  form  and  technique  Pope's  art  is  unques- 
tioned. He  refined  and  condensed  the  couplet  until  it  cut 
Hke  a  rapier.  The  beauty  of  his  satire  thus  lies  rather  in 
small  details  than  in  general  effect,  in  clear-cut  and  pene- 
trating phrasing  rather  than  in  breadth  of  conception. 
With  all  this  his  work  is  marked  by  an  air  of  urbanity,  ease, 
and  grace,  which  connects  him  with  Horace  rather  than 
with  Juvenal.  His  wit  is  constant  and  his  irony  subtle. 
He  understood  perfectly  the  value  of  compression  and  of 
symmetry. 

Finally  he  left  behind  him  a  heritage  and  a  tradition. 
With  all  his  malice,  his  occasional  pettiness  and  habitual 
deceit,  he  so  transformed  the  verse-satire  that  no  imitator, 
following  his  design,  has  been  able  to  surpass  it.  The 
methods  and  the  forms  which  he  used  became,  for  good  or 
for  evil,  those  of  most  satire  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
From  the  Dunciad  down  to  the  days  of  Byron  it  was  Pope's 
influence  chiefly  that  determined  the  course  of  English 
satire  in  verse. 

Byron  was  fond  of  associating  himself  with  Pope.  He 
paid  homage  to  him  as  a  master,  sustained,  in  theory  at 
least,  his  principles  of  versification,  defended  his  character, 
and  offered  him  the  tribute  of  quotation  and  imitation. 
Over  and  over  again  he  repeated  his  belief  in  "the  Chris- 

-  In  the  Dramatis  Personae  of  A  hsalom  and  Achitophel  only  two  women 
appear,  and  they  are  spoken  of  in  the  poem  in  a  complimentary  way. 


l6  LORD    BVROX   AS    A   SATIRIST    IN  VERSE 

tianity  of  English  poetry,  the  poetry  of  Pope."'  Only  in 
satire,  however,  did  Pope's  influence  become  noticeable  in 
Byron's  poetry;  but  in  satire  this  influence  was  important. 

Pope's  chief  contemporary  in  formal  satire  in  verse  was 
Young,  whose  Love  of  Fame,  The  Universal  Passion  was 
finished  in  1727,  before  the  publication  of  the  Dimciad. 
The  seven  satires  which  this  work  contains  comprise  por- 
trayals of  type  characters  under  Latin  names,  diversified 
by  allusions  to  living  personages,  the  intention  being  to 
ridicule  evils  in  contemporary  social  life.  The  Epistles  to 
Pope  (1730),  by  the  same  author,  are  more  serious,  espe- 
cially in  their  arraignment  of  Grub  Street.  Young's  com- 
paratively lifeless  work  made  seemingly  no  strong  appeal 
to  Byron.  The  latter  never  mentions  him  as  a  satirist, 
although  he  does  quote  with  approval  some  favorite  pas- 
sages from  his  work. 

Lighter  in  tone  and  less  rigidly  formal  in  structure  was 
the  poetry  of  a  group  of  writers  headed  by  Prior  and  Gay, 
both  of  whom  were  at  their  best  in  a  kind  of  familiar  verse, 
lively,  bantering,  and  worldly  in  spirit.  Prior  managed 
with  some  skill  the  octosyllabic  couplet  of  Butler;  Gay  was 
successful  in  parody  and  the  satiric  fable.  ^  The  connection 
of  Prior  and  Gay  with  Byron  is  not  a  close  one,  although 
the  latter  quoted  from  them  both  in  his  Letters,  and  com- 
posed some  impromptu  parodies  of  songs  from  Gay's 
Beggar  s  Opera. ^ 

With  wSwift  Byron  had,  perhaps,  more  affinity.      Swift's 

'  Byron  particularly  emphasizes  the  correctness  and  moral  tone  of 
Pope:  he  is  "the  most  perfect  of  our  poets  and  the  purest  of  our  moral- 
ists" {Letters,  v.,  559);  "his  moral  is  as  pure  as  his  poetry  is  glorious" 
{Letters,  v.,  555);  "he  is  the  only  poet  that  never  shocks"  {Letters,  v., 
560). 

'  Gay's  Alexander  Pope,  his  safe  Return  from  Troy  (1720)  is  interesting 
as  being  one  of  the  rare  examples  of  the  use  of  the  English  octave  stanza 
between  Lycidas  and  Beppo. 

3  Letters,  v.,  252. 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  1 7 

cleverness  in  discovering  extraordinary  rhymes  undoubtedly 
influenced  the  versification  of  Don  Juan,^  and  his  morbid 
hatred  of  human  nature  and  sordid  views  of  life  sometimes 
colored  Byron's  satiric  mood.- 

Much  lower  in  the  literary  scale  are  the  countless  ballads 
and  lampoons  of  the  period  which  maintain  the  rough  and 
ready  aggressiveness  of  Marvell,  in  a  style  slovenly,  broken, 
and  journalistic.  Events  like  the  trial  of  Sacheverell  and 
the  South  Sea  Bubble  brought  out  scores  of  ephemeral 
satires  which  it  would  be  idle  to  notice  here.  Of  these 
scurvy  pamphleteers,  three  gained  considerable  notoriety: 
Tom  Brown  (1663-1704),  Thomas  D'Urfey  (1653-1723), 
and  Ned  Ward  (1667- 1 731).  Defoe,  in  several  long  satires, 
especially  in  the  formidable  folio  Jure  Divino,  shows  the 
results  of  a  study  of  Dryden,  although  his  lines  are  rugged 
and  his  style  is  colloquial.  The  work  of  no  one  of  these 
men  had  any  visible  influence  on  Byron,  but  their  produc- 
tion illustrates  the  w^ide-spread  popularity  at  this  time  of 
satire,  even  in  its  transitory  and  unliterary  phases. 

The  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  comparatively 
poor  though  it  is  in  poetry  of  an  imaginative  sort,  is 
rich  in  satiric  Hterature  of  every  variety.  Nearly  every 
able  writer  of  verse — even  including  Gray — tried  his 
hand  at  satire,  and  the  resulting  product  is  enormous. 
The  heroic  couplet  as  employed  by  Pope  was  recognized 
as  the  proper  measure  for  formal  satire,  and  the  influence 
of  Pope  appeared  in  the  diverse  forms  used :  the  mock- 
heroic,  the  personal  epistle,  the  critical  verse-essay,  and 
the  moral  or  preceptive  poem.  At  the  same  time  no 
small  proportion  of  less  formal  satire  took  the  manner  of 

•  In  speaking  of  the  art  of  rhyming  to  Trelawney,  Byron  said: — "If 
you  are  curious  in  these  matters,  look  in  Swift.  I  will  send  you  a  vol- 
ume; he  beats  us  all  hollow,  his  rhymes  are  wonderful." 

'  Cf.  Swift's  The  Puppet  Show  with  Byron's  Inscription  on  the  Monu- 
ment of  a  Newfoundland  Dog. 


l8  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Gay  and  Swift,  in  the  octosyllabic  couplet.  The  ballad 
and  other  less  di^mified  measures  still  continued  popular 
for  ephemeral  satire.  Finally  there  was  a  body  of  work, 
including  Gawper!s  Task,  the  satiric  poems  of  Bums,  and  the 
early  Tales  of  Crabbe,  which  must  be  regarded  as,  in  some 
respects,  exceptional. 

Of  the  satirists  of  the  school  of  Pope,  the  greater  number 
seem  to  have  had  Dr.  Johnson's  conception  of  Satire  as  the 
son  of  Wit  and  Malice,  although,  like  Pope,  they  continued 
to  pose  as  the  upholders  of  morality  even  when  indulging 
in  the  most  indiscriminate  abuse. '  They  borrowed  the 
lesser  excellencies  of  their  master,  but  seldom  attained  to 
his  brilliance,  keeping,  as  far  as  they  were  able,  to  his  form 
and  method,  but  lacking  the  genius  to  reanimate  his  style. 

The  mock-heroic  was  exceedingly  popular  during  the 
fifty  years  following  the  death  of  Pope.  The  satires  of  one 
group,  following  The  Rape  of  the  Lock,  contain  no  personal 
invective,  and  are  satiric  only  in  the  sense  that  any  parody 
of  a  serious  genre  is  satiric.  ^  Another  class  of  mock-heroics, 
modelled  particularly  on  the  Diinciad,  make  no  pretence  of 
refraining  from  personal  satire,  and  are  often  violently 
scurrilous.  3  A  large  number  of  poems  imitate  the  title  of 
the  Diinciad  without  necessarily  having  any  mock-heroic 
characteristics.''     In  the  field  of  personal,  and  especially  of 

'  For  a  contemporary  characterization  of  the  unscrupulous  satirists 
of  the  period  see  Cowper's  Charity,  501-532,  in  the  passage  beginning, 
"Most  satirists  are  indeed  a  pubHc  scourge." 

^  Examples  are  The  Thimble  (1743)  by  WilHam  Hawkins  (1722-1801) 
and  the  Scribleriad  (1752)  by  Richard  Owen  Cambridge  (1717-1802). 

3  State  Dunces  (1733)  and  The  Gymnasiad  (1738)  by  Paul  Whitehead 
(1710-1744);  The  Toast  (1736)  by  WilHam  King  (1685-1763);  and  a  suc- 
cession of  anonymous  poems,  The  Battle  of  the  Briefs  (1752),  Patriotism 
(1765),  The  Battle  of  the  Wigs  (1763),  The  Triumph  of  Dulness  (1781), 
The  Rape  of  the  Faro-Bank  (1797),  and  The  Battle  of  the  Bards  (1799). 

*  The  most  important  is  Churchill's  Rosciad  (i  761 ),  with  the  numerous 
replies  which  it  elicited:  the  Churchilliad  (1761),  the  Smithfield  Rosciad 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  19 

political,  satire,  are  many  poems  not  corresponding  exactly 
to  any  of  the  above  mentioned  types.'  The  bitter  party 
feeling  aroused  by  the  rise  to  power  of  Lord  Bute  and  by 
the  resulting  protests  of  Wilkes  in  the  North  Briton  was  the 
occasion  of  many  broadsides  during  the  decade  between 
1760  and  1770.^ 

Several  satires  of  the  period,  based  particularly  on  Pope's 
satiric  epistles,  seem  to  maintain  a  more  elevated  tone, 
although  they  also  are  frequently  intemperate  in  their  per- 
sonahties.^  An  excellent  example  is  the  very  severe 
Epistle  to  Curio  by  Akenside,  praised  for  its  literary  merits 
by  Macaulay.''  A  small,  but  rather  important  class  of 
satires  is  made  up  of  criticisms  of  literature  or  Uterary  men 

in  the  manner  of  either  the  Essay  on  Criticism  or  the  Dun- 

, i^ , 

(1761),  the  Anti-Rosciad  (1761),  by  Thomas  Morell  (1703-1784),  and 
The  Rosciad  of  Covent  Garden  (1761)  by  H.  J.  Pye  (1745-1813).  Among 
other  satires  of  the  same  class  may  be  mentioned  the  Smartiad  (1752) 
by  Dr.  John  Hill  (1710-1775),  with  its  answer,  the  severe  and  effective 
Hilliad  (1752)  by  Christopher  Smart  (1722-1771);  the  Meretriciad 
(1764)  by  Arthur  Murphy  (1727-1806);  the  Consuliad  (1770),  a  frag- 
ment by  Chatterton;  the  Diaboliad  (1777),  with  its  sequel,  the  Diabo- 
lady  (1777)  by  William  Combe  (1741-1823);  and  finally  the  Criticisms 
on  the  Rolliad,  Gifford's  Baviad  and  Mceviad,  the  Simpliciad,  and  the 
Alexandriad  (1805). 

'  The  Scandalizade  (1750);  The  Pasquinade  (1752)  by  William  Kenrick 
(1725-1779);  The  Quackade  (1752);  The  Booksellers  (1766);  The  Art  of 
Rising  in  the  Church  (1763)  by  James  Scott  (1733-18 14);  The  Senators 
(1772);  and  The  Tribunal  (1787). 

^  A  few  typical  controversial  satires  of  this  decade  are:  The  Race 
(1762)  by  Cuthbert  Shaw  (i  739-1 771);  The  Tower  (1763);  the  Dema- 
gogue (1764)  by  William  Falconer  (1732-1769);  The  Scourge  (1765); 
and  The  Politician  (1766)  by  E.  B.  Greene  (1727-1788). 

3  Some  characteristic  examples  are  the  Epistle  to  Cornbury  (1745)  by 
Earl  Nugent  (i 702-1 788);  the  Epistle  to  William  Chambers  (1773)  and 
the  Epistle  to  Dr.  Shebbeare  (1777)  by  William  Mason  (1724-1797);  and 
the  Epistle  to  Dr.  Randolph  (1796),  as  well  as  numerous  other  epistles,  by 
T.  J.  Mathias. 

1  See  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Horace  Walpole,  page  35. 


20  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

ciad. '  Still  another  group  deal,  like  Young's  Love  of  Fame, 
with  the  foibles  and  fads  of  society,  using  type  figures  and 
avoiding  specific  references.^  It  is  necessary,  finally,  to 
include  under  satire  many  of  the  didactic  and  philosophic 
poems  which  seemed  to  infect  the  century.  ^  These  Ethic 
Epistles,  as  they  are  styled  in  Bell's  Fugitive  Pieces,  are  often 
little  more  than  verse  sermons.  Obviously  many  poems 
of  this  nature  hardly  come  within  the  scope  of  true  satire. 
Goldsmith's  deserted  Village  (1770),  for  instance,  has  some 
satirical  elements;  yet  it  is,  properly  speaking,  meditative 
and  descriptive  verse.  The  same  may  be  said,  perhaps,  of 
the  so-called  satires  of  Cowper. 

The  body  of  work  thus  cursorily  reviewed  shows  a  wide 
diversity  of  subject-matter  combined  with  a  consistent  and 
monotonous  uniformity  of  style.  In  most  of  the  material 
we  find  the  same  regular  versification,  the  same  stock  epi- 
thets, and  the  same  lack  of  distinctive  qualities;  indeed, 
were  the  respective  writers  unknown,  it  would  be  a  difficult 
task  to  distinguish  between  the  verse  of  two  such  satirists 
as  James  Scott  and  Soame  Jenyns.  During  the  fifty  years 
between  the  death  of  Pope  and  the  appearance  of  Gifford's 

•  An  Essay  on  the  Different  Styles  of  Poetry  (1713)  by  Thomas  Parnell 
(1679-17 1 8);  The  Danger  of  Writing  Verse  (1741)  by  William  Whitehead 
(1715-1785);  A  Prospect  of  Poetry  (1733);  The  Perils  of  Poetry  (1766); 
and  The  Wreath  of  Fashion  (1780)  by  Richard  Tickcll  (1751-1793). 

'  The  anonymous  Manners  of  the  Age  (1733);  Manners  (1738)  bj'  Paul 
Whitehead;  The  Man  of  Taste  (1733)  by  James  Bramston  (1694-1744); 
the  Modern  Fine  Gentleman  (1746)  and  the  Modern  Fine  Lady  (1750)  by 
Soame  Jenyns  (1703-1787);  Fashiofi  (1748)  by  Joseph  Warton  (1722- 
1800);  and  Newmarket  (1751)  by  Thomas  Warton  (1728-1790). 

3  Examples  are  the  Essay  on  Reason  (1733)  by  Walter  Harte  (1709- 
1774);  the  Vanity  of  Human  Enjoyments  (1749)  by  James  Cawthorn 
(1718-1761),  the  most  slavish  of  all  Pope's  imitators;  Honour  (1737) 
by  John  Brown;  Advice  and  Reproof  (1747)  by  Smollett;  Of  Retired  and 
Active  Life  (1735)  by  William  Helmoth  (1710-1799);  Ridicule  (1743)  by 
WiUiam  Whitehead;  Taste  (1753)  by  John  Armstrong  (1709-1779); 
An  Essay  on  Conversation  (1748)  by  Benjamin  Stillingfleet  (1702-1771). 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  21 

Baviad  (1794)  only  four  names  stand  out  above  the  rest 
as  important  in  the  history  of  English  satire  in  verse: 
Johnson,  Churchill,  Cowper,  and  Crabbe. 

Of  these  writers,  Johnson  contributed  but  little  to  the 
mass  of  English  satire.  His  London  (1738)  and  The  Vanity 
of  Human  Wishes  (1749)  are  imitations  of  Juvenal,  char- 
acterized by  stateliness,  dignity,  melancholy,  and  sonorous 
rhetoric,  but  with  only  a  slight  element  of  personal  attack. 
The  latter  poem  received  high  praise  from  Byron. ' 

Churchill  and  Byron,  who  have  often  been  compared 
because  of  their  quarrels  with  the  reviewers  and  their  denun- 
ciation of  a  conservative  and  reactionary  government,  were 
much  alike  in  their  arrogant  independence,  their  fiery 
intensity,  and  their  passionate  liberalism.  Churchill,  how- 
ever, unlike  Byron,  was  always  a  satirist,  and  undertook  no 
other  species  of  poetry.  In  many  respects  he  resembled 
Oldham,  whose  career,  like  his,  was  short  and  tumultuous, 
and  whose  wit,  like  his,  usually  shone  "through  the  harsh 
cadence  of  a  rugged  line." 

All  Churchill's  work  is  marked  by  vigor,  effrontery,  and 
earnestness,  and  the  ferocity  and  vindictiveness  of  much  of 
it  give  force  to  Gosse's  description  of  the  author  as  "a  very 
Caligula  among  men  of  letters."  However,  although  he 
was  responsible  for  two  of  the  most  venomous  literary 
assaults  in  English — that  on  Hogarth  in  the  Epistle  to  Wil- 
liam Hogarth  (1763)  and  that  on  Lord  Sandwich  in  The  Can- 
didate (1764) — he  did  not  stab  from  behind  or  resort  to 
underhand  methods.  Despite  his  obvious  crudities,  he  is 
the  most  powerful  figure  in  English  satire  between  Pope 
and  Byron. 

Churchill  employed  two  measures :  the  heroic  couplet,  in 
the  Rosciad  (1761)  and  several  succeeding  poems;  and  the 
octosyllabic  couplet,  in  The  Ghost  (1763)  and  The  Duellist 
(1764).     His  versification  is  seldom  polished,  but  his  lines 

'  Letters,  v.,  162. 


22  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

have,  at  times,  something  of  the  robustness  and  impetuous 
disregard  of  regularity  which  lend  strength  to  Dryden's 
couplets.  It  was  to  Churchill  that  Byron  attributed  in  part 
what  he  was  pleased  to  term  the  "absurd  and  systematic 
depreciation  of  Pope,"'  which,  in  his  opinion,  had  been 
developing  steadily  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Churchill  frankly  acknowledged  his  preference 
of  Dryden  over  Pope,*  a  partiality  which  he  shared  with 
Voltaire  and  Dr.  Johnson.  The  fact  is,  however,  that, 
despite  his  failure  to  attain  smoothness  and  artistic  finish, 
he  owed  more  to  Pope  than  he  realized  or  cared  to  admit.  ^ 

With  Cowper,  Byron  had  temperamentally  little  in  com- 
mon; yet^Cowper  is  interesting,  if  only  for  the  reason  that 
he  proves,  by  contrast  with  Churchill,  the  range  in  manner 
of  which  the  classical  satire  is  capable.  He  was  most  suc- 
cessful in  a  kind  of  mildly  moral  reproof,  which  has  often 
ease,  humor,  and  apt  sententiousness,  although  it  rarely 
possesses  energy  enough  to  make  it  effective  as  satire. 
Cowpcr's  familiar  verse,  often  satirical  in  tone,  is  almost 
wholly  admirable,  the  best  of  its  kind  between  Prior  and 
Praed. 

The  satire  of  Crabbe  is  essentially  realistic.  It  portrays 
things  as  they  are,  dwelling  on  each  sordid  detail  and  sweep- 
ing away  all  the  illusions  of  romance.  In  The  Village 
(1783),  for  instance,  Crabbe  describes  life  as  he  found  it 
among  the  lower  classes  in  a  Suffolk  coast  town — a  life 
barren,  humdrum,  and  dismal :  thus  the  poem  is  an  antidote, 
possibly  intentional,  to  the  idyllic  and  sentimental  picture 
drawn  by  Goldsmith  in  The  Deserted  Village.     The  ethical 

'  Letters,  iv.,  485.  "  See  An  Apology,  376-387. 

3  In  his  Letters,  Byron  refers  once  to  Churchill's  Times  {Letters,  ii., 
148).  His  Churchill's  Grave  (1816),  a  parody  of  Wordsworth's  style, 
contains  a  reference  to  Churcliill  as  "him  who  blazed  the  comet  of  a 
season."  Otherwise  Churchill's  actual  influence  on  Byron  was  not 
great. 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  23 

element  is  always  present  in  Crabbe's  work,  and  thus  he 
preserves  the  didacticism  of  Pope  and  Cawthom;  but  his 
homely  phraseology,  his  sombre  portraiture,  and  his  pitiless 
psychological  analysis  of  character  connect  him  with  a 
novelist  like  Hardy.  Possibly  some  of  the  realism  of  Don 
Juan  may  be  traced  to  the  example  of  Crabbe,  for  whom 
Byron  had  both  respect  and  affection. ' 

Aside  from  that  exercised  by  the  work  and  heritage  of 
Pope,  the  most  definite  influence  upon  Byron's  satiric  verse 
came  from  the  satires  of  William  Giftord  (i 756-1826), 
which  had  appeared  some  years  before  Byron  began  to 
write.  Gifford,  who  early  became  the  young  lord's  model 
and  counsellor,  and  who  later  revised  and  corrected  his 
poetry,  continued  to  the  end  to  be  one  of  the  few  liter- 
ary friends  to  whom  Byron  referred  consistently  with 
deference.^ 

Gifford's  reputation  was  established  by  the  publication 
of  two  short  satires,  the  Baviad  (1794)  and  the  Maviad 
(1795).  printed  together  in  1797.  The  Baviad  is  an  imita- 
tion of  the  first  satire  of  Persius,  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue 
between  the  poet  and  his  friend;  the  Mceviad  paraphrases 
Horace's  tenth  satire  of  the  first  book.  Both  are  devoted 
primarily  to  deserved,  but  often  unnecessarily  harsh,  criti- 
cism of  some  contemporary  fads  in  literature,  particularly 
of  the  "effusions"  of  the  so-called  Delia  Cruscan  School.^ 

'Byron  praised  Crabbe  in  English  Bards  as  "Nature's  sternest 
painter,  but  her  best."  In  a  letter  to  Moore,  February  2,  18 18,  he 
termed  Crabbe  and  Rogers  "the  fathers  of  present  Poesy,"  and  in  his 
Reply  to  Blackwood' s  (1819)  he  said  publicly:  "We  are  all  wrong  except 
Crabbe,  Rogers,  and  Campbell."  Crabbe,  whom  Horace  Smith  called 
"  Pope  in  worsted  stockings,"  seemed,  to  Byron,  to  represent  devotion  to 
Pope. 

*  Byron  said  of  Giflford  in  1824:  "I  have  always  considered  him  as 
my  literary  father,  and  myself  as  his  'prodigal  son'  "     {Letters,  vi.,  329). 

3  The  movement  represented  by  this  clique,  Gli  Oziosi,  originated  in 
Florence  with  a  coterie  of  dilettanti,  among  whom  were  Robert  Merry 


24  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Giff  ord  was  a  Tory  in  a  period  when  the  unexpected  excesses 
of  the  French  revolutionists  were  causing  all  Tories,  and 
even  the  more  conservative  Whigs,  to  take  a  stand  against 
innovation,  eccentricity,  and  individualism  in  any  form. 
Since  the  Delia  Cruscans  were  nearly  all  liberals,'  it  was 
natural  that  Gifford  should  be  enthusiastic  in  his  project 
of  ridiculing  the  "metromania"  for  which  they  were  re- 
sponsible. Thus  his  satires  are  protests  against  license, 
defending  the  conventional  canons  of  taste  and  reasserting 
the  desirability  of  law  and  order  in  literature. 

Undoubtedly  Gilford  performed  a  certain  service  to  the 
cause  of  letters  by  condemning,  in  a  common-sense  fashion, 
the  silly  sentimentality  of  the  Delia  Cruscans.^  Unfor- 
tunately it  was  almost  impossible  for  him  to  compose  satire 
without  being  scurrilous.  Although  he  may  have  possessed 
the  virtue  of  sincerity  with  which  Courthope  credits  him,  he 
invariably  picked  for  his  victims  men  who  were  too  feeble 
to  reply  effectually.  Still  the  satires,  appearing  so  oppor- 
tunely, made  Giff  ord  both  famous  and  feared.  The  Baviad 
and  the  Mceviad  were  placed,  without  pronounced  dissent, 
beside  the  Dunciad.  Mathias  said  of  the  author,  in  all 
seriousness:     "He  is  the  most  correct  poetical  writer  I 

(1755-1799),  Mrs.  Piozzi  (1741-1831),  Bertie  Greathead  (1759-1826), 
and  William  Parsons  (fl.  1 785-1 807).  They  published  two  small  vol- 
umes, The  Arno  Miscellany  (1784)  and  The  Florence  Miscellany  (1785), 
both  marred  by  affectation,  obscurity,  tawdry  ornamentation,  and  fran- 
tic efforts  at  subHmity.  The  printing  of  Merry's  Adieu  and  Recall  to 
Love  started  a  new  series  of  sentimental  verses,  in  the  writing  of  which 
other  scribblers  took  part:  Hannah  Cowley  (i 743-1809),  Perdita  Rob- 
inson (1752-1800),  and  Thomas  Vaughan  (fl.  1772-1820).  Their  com- 
bined contributions  were  gathered  in  Bell's  British  Album  (1789). 

'  Merry  had  written  a  Wreath  of  Liberty  ( 1 790)  in  praise  of  revolution- 
ary principles. 

'  Scott  said  of  Giff  ord:  "He  squashed  at  one  blow  a  set  of  humbugs 
who  might  have  humbugged  the  world  long  enough."  New  Morality 
has  a  reference  to  "the  hand  which  brushed  a  swarm  of  fools  away." 
Byron  inserted  a  similar  passage  in  English  Bards,  741-744. 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  25 

have  read  since  the  days  of  Pope."  Even  Byron,  so  immeas- 
urably Gifford's  superior  in  most  respects,  was  dominated 
so  far  as  to  term  him  "the  last  of  the  wholesome  satirists" ' 
and  to  refer  to  him  as  a  "Bard  in  virtue  strong."^ 

The  plain  truth  is  that  Gifiord  is  not  always  correct,  sel- 
dom wholesome,  and  never  great.  Something  of  his  style 
at  the  worst  may  be  obtained  from  a  single  line, 

"Yet  not  content,  like  horse-leeches  they  come," 

of  which  even  the  careless  Churchill  would  have  been 
ashamed.  Giflford  wanted  good-breeding,  and  he  had  no 
geniality;  his  irascible  nature  made  him  intolerant  and 
unjust.  Moreover  he  lacked  a  sense  of  discrimination  and 
proportion;  he  used  a  sledge-hammer  constantly,  often 
when  a  lighter  weapon  would  have  served  his  purpose.  In 
him  the  artistic  satire  of  Pope  seems  to  have  degenerated 
into  clumsy  and  crude  abuse. 

Carrying  to  excess  a  practice  probably  begun  by  Pope, 
with  the  advice  of  Swift,  Gififord  had  accompanied  his 
satires  with  copious  and  diffuse  notes,  sometimes  affixing 
a  page  or  more  of  prose  comment  to  a  single  line  of  verse.  ^ 
Mathias,  whose  Pursuits  of  Literature  was,  according  to 
De  Quincey,  the  most  pbpular  book  of  its  day,  so  exagger- 
ated this  fashion  that  it  is  often  a  question  in  his  work  to 
decide  which  is  meant  for  an  adjunct  to  the  other — verse 
or  prose  annotation. 

Thomas  James  Mathias  (1754-1835),  like  Giflford,  a  Tory, 
with  a  bigoted  aversion  to  anything  new  or  strange,  and 
a  firm  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  established  institutions, 

'  Letters,  iv.,  485.  '  English  Bards,  701. 

3  Moore  speaks  sarcastically  of  this  custom  in  the  Preface  to  Corrup- 
tion and  Intolerance  (1808):  "The  practice  which  has  been  lately  intro- 
duced into  literature,  of  writing  very  long  notes  upon  very  indifferent 
verses,  appears  to  me  a  very  happy  invention,  as  it  supplies  us  with  a 
mode  of  turning  dull  poetry  to  account." 


26  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

published  Dialogue  I  of  the  Pursuits  of  Literature  in  May, 
1794,  Dialogues  II  and  III  in  June,  1796,  and  Dialogue  IV 
in  1797.  In  his  theory  of  satire  he  insisted  on  three  essen- 
tials: notes,  and  full  ones;  anonymity  in  the  satirist;  and  a 
personal  application  for  the  attack.  His  chosen  field  in- 
cluded "faults,  vices,  or  follies,  which  are  destructive  of 
society,  of  government,  of  good  manners,  or  of  good  lit- 
erature." Mathias  is  pedantic,  ostentatious  in  airing  his 
information,  and  indefatigable  in  tracking  down  revolu- 
tionary ideas.  His  chief  work  is  a  curiosity,  discursive, 
disorderly,  and  incoherent,  with  a  versification  that  is  life- 
less and  unmelodious.  * 

With  the  work  of  Mathias,  this  cursory  summary  of  the 
strictly  formal  satire  in  the  eighteenth  century  comes  to  a 
natural  resting-place.  Only  a  year  or  two  after  the  Pur- 
suits of  Literature,  the  Anti-Jacobin  began,  and  in  its  pages 
we  find  a  more  modern  spirit.  It  is  now  necessary,  revert- 
ing to  an  earlier  period,  to  trace  the  progress  of  satire  along 
other  less  formal  lines,  and  to  deal  with  some  anomalous 
poems,  which,  although  satiric  in  tone,  are  difficult  to 
classify  according  to  any  logical  system. 

The  satiric  fable  had  a  considerable  vogue  throughout  the 
century,  and  collections  appeared  at  frequent  intervals.^ 
Nearly  all  have  allegorical  elements  and  contain  little  direct 
satire,  their  main  object  being  to  point  out  and  ridicule  the 
weaknesses  and  follies  of  human  nature.     The  octosyllabic 

'  Byron  said  of  the  Pursuits  0}  Literature :  "It  is  notoriously,  as  far 
as  the  poetry  gdes,  the  worst  written  of  its  kind;  the  World  has  long 
been  of  but  one  opinion,  viz.,  that  it 's  [sic]  sole  merit  lies  in  the  notes, 
which  are  indisputably  excellent"  {Letters,  ii.,  4). 

'  Examples  are  the  Fables  of  jEsop  (1692)  of  Roger  L'Estrange  (1616- 
1704);  ^sop  at  Court,  or  Select  Fables  (1702)  by  Thomas  Yalden  (1671- 
1736);  yEsop's  Fables  (1722)  by  Samuel  Croxall  (1680-1752);  Fables 
(1744)  by  Edward  Moore  (1711-1757);  and  collections  by  Nathaniel 
Cotton  (1707-1788)  and  William  Wilkie  (1721-1772). 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  2/ 

couplet,  the  favorite  measure  for  fables,  was  also  a  popular 
verse  form  in  familiar  epistles  and  humorous  tales,  modelled 
on  the  work  of  Prior,  Gay,  and  vSwift. '  Ephemeral  poHtical 
satire  continued  to  flourish  in  rough  and  indecorous  street- 
ballads,  sometimes  rising  almost  into  literature  in  the  pro- 
ductions of  men  like  Charles  Hanbury  Williams  (i  708-1 759) 
and  Caleb  Whitefoord  (1734-18 10).  With  the  inception  of 
the  Criticisms  on  the  Rolliad,  political  verse  assumes  a 
position  of  distinct  importance  in  the  history  of  satire. 

The  material  represented  under  the  title  Criticisms  on  the 
Rolliad  was  published  in  the  Whig  Morning  Herald,  begin- 
ning June  28,  1784,  shortly  after  the  fall  of  the  Fox-North 
coalition  and  the  appointment  of  the  younger  Pitt  to  the 
office  of  Prime  Minister.  It  presents  extracts  from  a  sup- 
posed epic,  based  on  the  deeds  of  the  ancestors  of  John 
Rolle,  M.  P.,  who  had  become  the  pet  aversion  of  the  Whigs. 
The  alleged  verse  excerpts,  all  of  them  short,  are  amalga- 
mated by  clever  prose  comment.  The  editors  included  a 
group  of  young  and  ambitious  Whig  statesmen:  Dr.  Law- 
rence, later  Professor  of  Civil  Law  at  Oxford,  who  furnished 
the  prose  sections;  Joseph  Richardson  (1755- 1803) ;  Richard 
Tickell,  already  mentioned  as  the  author  of  The  Wreath  of 
Fashion;  and  two  former  cabinet  ministers,  General  Fitz- 
patrick,  the  friend  of  Fox,  and  Lord  John  Townshend.  The 
object  of  these  men  was  to  belittle  and  deride  the  more 
prominent  Tories  in  both  Houses,  particularly  Rolle,  Pitt, 
Dundas,  and  the  Tory  Bishops,  by  singling  them  out,  one 
by  one,  for  ridicule.  Their  verse  was  a  flippant  and  free 
form  of  the  heroic  couplet.  Although  their  main  purpose 
was  poHtical,  they  dealt  only  slightly  with  party  princi- 

'  See  the  Spleen  (1737)  by  Matthew  Green  (1696-1737);  Variety,  a 
Tale  for  Married  People  (1732);  and  the  poems  of  Isaac  Hawkins  Browne 
(1705-1760),  James  Bramston  (1694-1744),  George  Colman,  the  elder 
(1732-1794),  John  Dalton  (1709-1763),  David  Garrick  {1717-1779), 
John  Buncombe  (i  729-1 763),  and  many  other  poetasters. 


28  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

pies,  preferring  rather  to  excite  laughter  by  their  personal 
allusions. 

The  marked  public  approbation  which  attended  their 
experiment  led  the  editors  to  continue  their  project  in  a 
series  of  Probationary  Odes  for  the  Laureateship,  comprising 
parodies  of  twenty-two  living  poets.  The  odes  follow  the 
plan  of  the  Pipe  of  Tobacco  (1734)  of  Isaac  Hawkins  Browne 
(1705- 1 760),  which  burlesques  the  poetry  of  Gibber,  James 
Thomson,  Swift,  Young,  and  Ambrose  Phillips. '  The  plan 
of  the  contributors  was  further  amplified  in  Political  Ec- 
logues and  Political  Miscellanies,  which  keep  to  the  original 
pohcy  of  vituperation,  at  the  same  time  showing  a  striking 
deterioration  in  the  quahty  of  the  verse.  The  first  zest 
had  grown  languid,  and  in  the  last  collection,  Extracts  from 
the  Album  at  Streatham  (1788),  containing  poems  purporting 
to  be  by  several  ministers  of  state,  the  verse  had  no  value  as 
literature. 

The  complete  product  of  these  Whig  allies  is,  as  a  rule, 
clever  and  pointed,  but  it  is  too  often  coarse  and  scandalous 
in  content.  Although  it  failed  in  reinstating  the  Whigs  in 
office,  it  occupies  an  important  position  in  English  political 
satire.  Despite  its  irregular  versification  and  its  frequently 
unedifying  subject-matter,  it  contains  some  brilliant 
sketches  and  many  witty  lines.  ^ 

A  droll  and  impudent,  but  not  altogether  pleasing  figure 
of  this  same  period  was  the  Whig  satirist,  Rev.  John  Wolcot 
(1738-18 1 9),  better  known  by  his  nom-de-guerre  of  Peter 
Pindar,  who,  making  it- his  especial  function  to  caricature 
George  III  and  his  court,  earned  from  Scott  the  title  of  "the 
most  unsparing  calumniator  of  his  time."     George,  with 

'  Probationary  Odes  also  anticipate  the  more  famous  Rejected  Addresses 
(1812),  and  the  Poetic  Mirror  (1816)  of  James  Hogg,  the  Ettrick 
Shepherd. 

'  For  less  reserved  praise  of  the  Rolliad,  see  Trevelyan's  Early  History 
of  Charles  James   Fox,  page  285. 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  29 

his  bourgeois  habits  and  petty  economies,  made  a  splendid 
subject,  and  Pindar  drew  him  with  the  homely  realism  of 
Hogarth  or  Gilray,  pouring  forth  a  long  series  of  impertinent 
squibs  until  the  monarch's  dangerous  illness  in  1788  gained  ^ 
him  the  sympathy  of  the  nation  and  roused  popular  feeling 
against  his  lampooner.  Pindar  also  engaged  in  other  quar- 
rels, notably  with  the  trio  of  Tory  satirists,  Gififord,  Math- 
ias,  and  Canning.  ^  His  genius  was  that  of  the  caricaturist, 
and  his  vogue,  like  that  of  most  caricaturists,  was  soon  over. 
However,  the  peculiar  flavor  of  his  verses,  full  as  they  are 
sometimes  of  rich  humor  and  grotesque  descriptions,  is  still 
delightful,  and  partly  explains  the  merriment  which  greeted 
his  work  at  a  time  when  his  allusions  were  still  fresh  in 
people's  minds.  It  may  be  added  that  Pindar  shows  few 
traces  of  Pope's  influence;  he  makes  no  pretence  of  a  moral 
purpose,  and  he  seldom  employs  the  heroic  couplet. 

Professor  Courthope  suggests  that  Don  Juan  owes  much 
in  style  to  the  satires  of  Pindar.  The  question  of  a  possible 
indebtedness  will  be  taken  up  more  in  detail  in  another 
chapter;  it  is  sufficient  here  to  point  out  that  Byron  never 
refers  to  Wolcot  b\^  name,  and  makes  only  one  reference  to 
his  poetry.^ 

Some  of  the  most  powerful  social  and  political  satire  of  the 
century  was  written,  in  defence  of  democracy  and  liberalism, 
by  the  vigorous  pen  of  Robert  Burns.  ^  His  work,  however, 
despite  the  fact  that  it  discussed  many  of  the  topics  which 

'  In  A  Postscript  he  speaks  of  "the  unmeaning  and  noisy  lines  of  two 
things  called  Baviad  and  Mceviad";  while  in  a  note  to  Out  at  Last,  or  the 
Fallen  Minister,  he  presents  a  sketch  of  Gifford's  life,  accusing  him  of 
heinous  crimes,  and  speaking  of  the  "awkward  and  obscure  inversions 
and  verbose  pomposity"  of  the  Baviad.  Gififord  replied  in  the  Epistle 
to  Peter  Pindar  (1800).  Mathias  and  Canning  invariably  treated  Pin- 
dar with  contempt. 

'  Vision  of  Judgment,  92 . 

3  See  A  Dream  (1786),  a  bitterly  satirical  address  to  George  III,  and 
the  Lines  Written  at  Stirling,  attacking  the  Hanoverians. 


30  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

were  agitating  the  English  satirists,  was  not  particularly 
influential  at  the  time  in  England. 

One  peculiar  work,  significant  in  the  evolution  of  satire 
because  of  its  undoubted  influence  on  a  succeeding  genera- 
tion, was  the  New  Bath  Guide;  or  Memoirs  of  the  B — r — d 
Family  (1766),  written  by  Christopher  Anstey  (1724-1805).^ 
It  consists  of  a  series  of  letters,  most  of  them  in  an  easy 
anapestic  measure  with  curious  rhymes,  purporting  to  be 
from  different  members  of  one  family,  and  satirising  life  at 
the  fashionable  watering-place  made  famous  only  a  few 
years  before  by  Beau  Nash.  Anstey's  method  of  using 
letters  for  the  purpose  of  satire  was  followed  by  other 
authors,^  but  never,  until  Moore's  Two-penny  Postbag  and 
Fudge  Family,  with  complete  success.  Other  satires  of  the 
century  also  employed  the  anapestic  metre  in  a  clever  way.^ 

The  Tory  Anti- Jacobin,  a  weekly  periodical  which  began 
on  November  20,  1797,  and  printed  its  last  number  on  July 
9,  1798,  appropriately  closes  the  satire  of  the  century,  for  it 
includes  examples  of  most  of  the  types  of  satiric  verse  which 
had  been  popular  since  the  death  of  Pope.  Founded  by 
government  journalists,  possibly  at  Pitt's  instigation,  it 
planned  to  "oppose  papers  devoted  to  the  cause  of  sedition 
and  irreligion,  to  the  pay  and  interests  of  France."  At  a 
critical  period  in  English  affairs,  when  the  long  struggle  with 
France    and    Napoleon    was    just   beginning    and    many 

'  Byron  knew  the  New  Bath  Guide  well,  and  admired  it.  In  one  of 
his  youthful  poems,  an  Answer  to  Some  Elegant  Verses  sent  by  a  Friend 
to  the  Author  he  uses  four  lines  of  Anstey's  poem  as  a  motto.  He  also 
quotes  from  it  not  infrequently  in  his  letters. 

^  See  Letters  from  Simpson  the  Second  to  his  Dear  Brother  in  Wales 
(1788)  and  Groans  of  the  Talents  (1807),  both  of  which  deliberately 
appropriate  Anstey's  scheme.     Both  are  anonymous. 

■>  See  the  Epistle  to  my  Sisters  (1734)  by  Thomas  Lisle;  The  'Piscopade, 
a  Panegyri-Satiri-Serio-Comical  Poem  (i 748)  by  "  Porcupinus  Pelagius  " ; 
and  Goldsmith's  three  graceful  satires.  Retaliation  (1774),  The  Haunch 
of  Venison  (1776),  and  the  Letter  to  Mrs.  Bu7ibury  (1777). 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  3 1 

Whigs  were  still  undecided  as  to  their  allegiance,  it  was  the 
purpose  of  the  Anti- Jacobin,  as  representative  of  militant 
nationalism,  to  oppose  foreign  innovations  and  to  uphold 
time-honored  institutions.  Each  number  of  the  paper  con- 
tained several  sections:  an  editorial,  or  leader;  departments 
assigned  to  Finances,  Lies,  Misrepresentations,  and  Mis- 
takes; and  some  pages  of  verse,  with  a  prose  introduction. 
Gifford,  who  had  been  chosen  to  superintend  the  publication, 
devoted  himself  entirely  to  editorial  management,  so  that 
the  responsibility  for  the  verse  devolved  upon  George 
Canning  (1770-1827)  and  several  assistants,  among  whom 
were  Ellis,  now  an  adherent  of  the  Tories,  and  John  Hook- 
ham  Frere  (i  769-1 846). 

The  Anti- Jacobin,  then,  planned  first  to  revive  the  tra- 
ditions of  English  patriotism  and  to  rally  public  opinion  to 
the  support  of  king  and  country.  As  a  secondary  but  essen- 
tial element  of  its  design,  it  aimed,  especially  in  its  verse, 
to  expose  the  falsity  and  fatuity  of  the  doctrines  of  Holcroft, 
Paine,  Godwin,  and  other  radical  philosophers  and  econo- 
mists; to  ridicule  and  parody  the  work  of  authors  of  the 
revolutionary  school,  particularly  of  the  English  Lake  poets 
and  the  followers  of  the  German  romanticists ;  and  inciden- 
tally to  satirise  some  of  the  social  and  literary  follies  of  the 
age.  ^  Since  the  verse  was  submitted  by  many  contributors, 
its  tone  was  not  always  homogeneous,  and  it  varied  from 
playful  jocularity  to  stem  didacticism.  On  the  whole, 
however,  it  had  a  definite  ethical  purpose,  and  avowedly 
championed  sound  morality  and  conservative  principles. 

The  poetry  of  the  Anti-Jacobin  includes  illustrations  of 
many  varied  satiric  forms.  New  Morality  is  a  set,  formal 
satire  in  conventional  couplets  and  balanced  lines,  superior 

'  The  attitude  of  the  Anti-Jacobin  was  aknost  precisely  that  already 
adopted  by  Giflford  and  Mathias;  that  is,  it  represented  extreme  Tory 
feeling,  and  therefore  was  resolutely  opposed  to  any  movement  in  lit- 
erature which  seemed  new  or  strange. 


32  LORD  RVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

in  technique  to  the  best  work  of  Gifford  and  Mathias,  and 
not  unworthy  of  comparison  with  many  of  the  satires  of 
Pope.  Acme  and  Septimiiis,  or  the  Happy  Union  is  a  short 
informal  verse  tale,  reminiscent  in  manner  of  the  unedifying 
personalities  in  the  Rolliad.  There  are  satiric  imitations 
of  Horace  and  Catullus.  There  are  parodies  of  many  sorts: 
the  Needy  Knife  Grinder,  an  artistic  parody  of  Southey's 
Sapphics;  the  Loves  of  the  Triangles,  a  burlesque  of  Darwin's 
Loves  of  the  Plants;  the  Progress  of  Man,  ridiculing  the 
tedious  didacticism  of  Payne  Knight;  and  Chevy  Chace,  a 
parody  of  the  romantic  ballad.  Hudibrastic  couplets  are 
used  in  A  Consolatory  Address  to  his  Gunboats,  by  Citizen 
Miiskein;  anapests,  in  the  Translation  of  a  Letter,  in  the 
style  of  Anstey;  and  doggerel,  in  the  Elegy  on  the  Death 
of  Jean  Bon  Andre.  The  material  of  the  satire  com- 
prehends events  in  politics,  in  literature,  in  philosophy, 
and,  to  some  extent,  in  societ3^  Thus,  in  small  com- 
pass, the  poetry  of  the  Anti- Jacobin  offers  a  fruitful  field 
for  study. 

In  more  than  one  respect,  too,  it  furnished  suggestions  for 
the  nineteenth  century.  Ballynahinch  and  the  Translation 
of  a  Letter  may  have  had  some  influence  on  the  manner  and 
versification  of  Moore  and  Byron.  Certain  of  the  Odes, 
notably  the  imitation  of  Horace,  111,25,  have  the  delicate 
touch  which  was  to  mark  the  lighter  satire  of  the  Smiths 
and  Praed,  and.  later,  of  Calverley,  Barham,  and  Locker. 
In  its  rare  combination  of  refined  raillery  with  subtle  irony 
and  underlying  seriousness,  the  satire  of  the  Anti- Jacobin 
anticipates  the  brilliance  of  Punch  in  the  days  when  Thack- 
eray was  a  contributor  to  its  pages.  The  dexterous  and 
artistic  humor  of  Canning  and  his  confederates  did  not 
drive  out  the  cut-and-slash  method  of  Gifford,  but  it 
did  succeed  in  teaching  the  lesson  that  mockery  and  wit 
are  fully  as  effectual  as  vituperation  in  remedying  a  public 
evil. 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  33 

At  the  time  of  the  subsidence  of  the  A  nti- Jacobin  in  1798, ' 
the  boy  Byron,  just  made  a  lord  by  the  death  of  his  great- 
uncle  on  May  19,  1798,  was  in  his  eleventh  year.  From 
this  date  on,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  take  account  not 
only  of  the  satiric  literature  which  may  have  influenced  his 
work,  but  also  of  the  events  in  politics  and  society  which 
were  occurring  around  him  and  which  determined  in  many 
ways  the  course  of  his  career  as  a  satirist.  From  his  envi- 
ronment and  his  associations  came  often  his  provocation 
and  his  material. 

No  single  verse-satire  of  note  was  produced  during  the 
ten  years  just  preceding  English  Bards,  and  Scotch  Review- 
ers. It  seemed,  indeed,  for  a  time,  as  if  satire,  fallen  into 
feeble  hands,  would  lose  any  claim  to  be  considered  as  a 
branch  of  permanent  literature.  The  increasing  power  of 
the  daily  newspapers  and  their  abuse  of  the  freedom  of  the 
press  stimulated  the  composition  of  short  satiric  ballads 
and  epigrams,  designed  to  be  effective  for  the  moment, 
but  most  of  them  hastily  conceived,  carelessly  executed, 
and  speedily  forgotten.  The  laws  against  libel,  not  consis- 
tently enforced  until  after  the  second  conviction  of  Finnerty 
in  1811  and  the  imprisonment  of  the  Hunt  brothers  in  18 12, 
were  habitually  disregarded  or  evaded,  and  the  utmost 
license  of  speech  seems  to  have  been  tolerated,  even  when 
directed  at  the  royal  family.  The  ethical  standard  which 
Pope  had  set  for  satire  and  which  had  been  kept  in  New 
Morality  was  now  forgotten  in  the  strife  of  faction  and  the 
play  of  personal  spite.  Pope  had  laid  emphasis  on  style  and 
technique,  and  even  Mathias  and  Gifford  had  made  some 
attempt  to  follow  him ;  but  the  new  school  of  satirists  cared 
little  for  art.  No  doubt  this  degradation  of  satire  may  be 
partly  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  really  capable  writers 

'  The  Anti- Jacobin  was  deserted  by  its  original  editors,  largely  because 
it  was  becoming  too  dangerous  a  weapon  for  aspiring  statesmen  to  handle. 
A  new  journal,  under  the  same  name,  was  less  successful. 


< 


34  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

of  the  time — Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Scott,  and  Southey — 
were  engaged  in  poetry  of  another  sort ;  but  the  result  was 
that  satire  became  the  property  of  journalists  and  poetasters 
until  Byron  and  Moore  recovered  for  it  some  of  its  former 
dignity. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  there  was  a  dearth  of  material 
for  destructive  criticism.  Few  decades  of  English  history 
have  offered  a  more  tempting  opportunity  to  a  satirist.^ 
The  Napoleonic  Wars,  renewed  in  May,  1803,  after  the 
brief  Peace  of  Amiens  (1802),  were  not,  in  spite  of  an  occa- 
sional naval  victory,  resulting  advantageously  for  England ; 
the  disgraceful  Convention  of  Cintra  (1808)  and  the  Wal- 
cheren  fiasco  of  1809  had  detracted  from  British  prestige; 
and  the  Peninsular  Campaign  of  1808  seemed  at  the  time 
to  be  a  disastrous  failure.  The  wearisome  conflict  had 
accentuated  class  differences,  since,  as  Byron  afterwards 
pointed  out  in  The  Age  of  Bronze,  the  landed  interests  only 
increased  their  wealth  as  the  struggle  continued.  Many 
reforms  were  being  agitated:  Catholic  Emancipation, 
opposed  resolutely  by  George  III  and  not  made  a  reality 
until  Canning  became  supreme;  the  abolition  of  negro 
slavery,  championed  persistently  by  Wilberf orce ;  and  many 
improvements  in  the  suffrage  laws,  planned  by  Sir  Francis 
Burdett  and  a  small  group  of  liberal  statesmen.  The  older 
leaders,  Pitt  and  Fox,  died  in  the  same  year  (1806),  leaving 
weaker  and  less  trusted  men  to  fill  their  places;  while  po- 

'  It  was  the  era  described  by  Wordsworth  in  his  sonnets  Written  in 
London,  1802,  and  London,  1802,  the  last  beginning, 

"Milton!  thou  should'st  be  living  at  this  hour: 
England  hath  need  of  thee :  she  is  a  fen 
Of  stagnant  waters!     Altar,  sword,  and  pen, 
Fireside,  the  heroic  wealth  of  hall  and  bower, 
Have  forfeited  their  ancient  English  dower 
Of  inward  happiness.     We  are  selfish  men." 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  35 

litical  issues  became  confused  until  the  establishment  of  the 
Regency  in  1811  opened  the  way  for  the  long  Tory  adminis- 
tration of  Lord  Liverpool.  Some  incidents  of  an  unusually 
scandalous  character  aroused  a  general  spirit  of  dissatisfac- 
tion. The  impeachment  of  Melville  in  1806  for  alleged 
peculation  of  funds  in  the  naval  office ;  the  investigation  in 
1806  into  the  character  of  the  giddy  Princess  Caroline, 
instigated  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  had  married  her  in 
1795  and  deserted  her  within  a  year;  the  resignation  of  the 
Duke  of  York  from  the  command  of  the  army,  following  a 
dramatic  expose  of  his  relations  with  Mrs.  Clarke  and  her 
disposal  of  commissions  for  bribes ;  the  duel  between  Castle- 
reagh  and  Canning  (1809) — all  these  were  unsavory  topics  of 
the  hour.  The  open  profligacy  of  the  heir  to  the  throne 
drew  upon  him  ridicule  and  contempt,  and  the  frequent 
recurrence  of  the  King's  malady  left  Englishmen  in  doubt 
as  to  the  duration  of  his  reign.  In  such  an  age  the  ephem- 
eral satires  of  the  newspapers  joined  with  the  cartoons 
of  Gilray  and  Cruikshank  in  assailing  evils  and  expressing 
public  indignation.  It  is,  then,  remarkable  that  no  writer 
of  real  genius  should  have  been  led  to  commemorate  these 
events  in  satire. 

The  formal  satires  of  the  decade  are,  for  the  most  part, 
lifeless,  lacking  in  wit  and  art.  The  most  readable  of 
them  is,  perhaps,  Epics  of  the  Ton  (1807),  by  Lady  Anne 
Hamilton  (i  766-1 846),  divided  into  a  Male  Book  and  a 
Female  Book.  It  is  a  gallery  of  contemporary  portraits, 
in  which  some  twenty  women  and  seventeen  men,  all 
prominent  personages,  are  sketched  by  one  familiar  with 
most  of  the  current  scandal  in  court  and  private  life. 
Although  it  is  written  in  the  heroic  couplet,  the  versification 
is  singularly  crude  and  careless.  Structurally  the  work  has 
Uttle  discernible  unity,  being  merely  a  series  of  satiric  char- 
acterizations without  connecting  links,  and  each  section 
might  have  been  printed  as  a  separate  lampoon.     The  intro- 


36  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

ductory  passage,  however,  contains  a  running  survey  of 
contemporary  poetry  which  was  not  without  influence  on 
Byron.  Lady  Hamilton,  clever  retailer  of  gossip  though 
she  was,  belongs  to  the  decadent  school  of  Pope. 

In  1808  Tom  Moore  published  anonymously  Corruption 
and  Intolerance,  following  them  in  the  next  year  with  The 
Skeptic,  a  Philosophical  Satire.  All  three  are  satires  in  the 
manner  and  form  of  Pope;  but  in  spite  of  their  fervid  patriot- 
ism, they  are  dull  and  heavy,  and  Moore,  quick  to  recognize 
his  failure,  discreetly  turned  to  a  lighter  variety  of  satire  for 
which  his  powers  were  better  fitted.  Of  other  political 
satires  of  the  same  period,  the  best  were  excited  by  the 
notorious  ministry  of  "All  the  Talents,"  formed  by  the 
Whigs  after  the  death  of  their  leader,  Fox,  in  1806.  In  All 
the  Talents!  (1807),  Eaton  Stannard  Barrett  (i 786-1 820), 
under  the  name  of  Polypus,  undertook  to  undermine  the 
ministry  by  assailing  its  members,  following  the  methods  of 
the  Rolliad  and  using  the  diffuse  notes  which  Mathias  had 
popularized.  A  Whig  reply  appeared  shortly  after  in  All 
the  Blocks!  (1807)  by  the  indefatigable  W.  H.  Ireland  (1777- 
1835),  which  attacked  the  newly  formed  Tory  ministry  of 
Portland. 

Among  the  nondescript  formal  satires  of  the  time  should 
be  mentioned  Ireland's  Stultifera  Navis  (1807),  a  spiritless, 
impersonal,  and  general  satire,  which  revives  the  form  of 
Brandt's  Narrenschiff  (1494),  introduced  into  English  in 
Barclay's  Ship  of  Fools  (1508).  A  later  satire  of  Ireland's, 
Chalcographimania  (18 14),  in  feeble  octosyllabics,  satirises 
collectors  and  bibliophiles.  The  Children  of  Apollo  (1794), 
an  anonymous  satire  of  an  earlier  period,  seems  to  have 
afforded  Byron  more  than  a  suggestion  for  his  English  Bards; 
but  he  was  influenced  still  more  b}'-  the  Simpliciad  (1808), 
published  anonymously,  but  actually  written  by  Richard 
Mant  ( 1 776-1 848),  which  is  dedicated  to  the  three  revolu- 
tionary poets,  Wordsworth,  Southey,  and  Coleridge,  and 


ENGLISH  SATIRE  FROM  DRYDEN  TO  BYRON  37 

contains  some  unmerciful  ridicule  of  their  more  absurd 
poems.  Mant's  work,  the  frank  criticism  of  "a  man  of 
classical  culture  and  of  some  poetic  impulse," '  merits  atten- 
tion as  being  an  almost  contemporary  outburst  of  the  same 
general  character  as  English  Bards. 

The  ballad  form  reappeared  in  many  satires  arising  from 
the  troubled  condition  of  pohtics^;  but  the  usual  tone  of  this 
work  is  scurrilous  and  commonplace,  and  dozens  of  such 
broadsides  were  composed  and  forgotten  in  a  day.  That 
any  one  of  them  had  any  definite  influence  on  Byron,  or  on 
the  course  of  satire  in  general,  is  highly  improbable.  What 
is  important  is  that  the  literary  atmosphere  for  a  few  years 
before  1809,  although  it  produced  no  great  satires,  was  sur- 
charged with  the  satiric  spirit,  and  that  Byron,  in  his  youth, 
must  have  been  accustomed  to  the  abusive  personalities 
then  common  in  the  daily  press.  Conditions  in  his  day 
encouraged  rather  than  repressed  destructive  criticism. 

This  summary  of  English  satiric  verse  between  Dryden 
and  Byron  ends  naturally  with  the  year  1809,  when  the 
latter  poet  first  revealed  his  true  genius  as  a  satirist.  Some- 
thing has  been  suggested  of  the  wide  scope  and  varied  char- 
acter of  satire  from  the  death  of  Pope  until  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  the  example  of  Pope  has  been  traced 
through  its  influence  on  satire  to  the  time  when  it  degener- 
ated in  the  work  of  Mathias  and  the  minor  rhymsters  of  the 
first  decade  of  the  new  century;  and  the  lighter  classes  of 
satire  have  been  followed  until  the  date  when  they  became 
artistic  in  the  poetry  of  the  Anti-Jacobin.  With  many  of 
these  English  predecessors  Byron  had  something  in  common ; 
from  a  few  he  drew  inspiration  and  material.      Although 

'  See  the  Nation,  volume  xciv.,  No.  2436,  March  7,  1912. 

'Examples  are  Elijah's  Mantle  (1807)  by  James  Sayer  (1748-1823), 
with  its  answer,  the  anonymous  Elijah's  Mantle  Parodied  (1807);  the 
Uti  Possidetis  and  Status  Quo  (1807),  The  Devil  and  the  Patriot  (1807), 
and  Canning's  famous  ballad  The  Pilot  that  Weathered  the  Storm. 


38  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

it  will  be  possible  to  point  out  only  a  few  cases  in  which  he 
was  indebted  to  them  directly  for  his  manner  and  phrase- 
ology, it  was  their  work  which  determined  very  largely  the 
course  which  he  pursued  as  a  satirist  in  verse. 

With  the  appearance  of  English  Bards,  and  Scotch  Re- 
viewers, English  satire  regained  something  of  the  stand- 
ing which  it  had  once  had  in  the  days  of  Pope  and  Swift. 
Men  of  the  highest  genius  were  soon  to  employ  satire  as 
a  weapon.  Moore,  the  Smiths,  Praed,  Hood,  and  Hook 
were  to  carry  raillery  and  mockery  almost  to  the  point  of 
perfection;  Shelley  was  to  unite  satire  with  idealism  and 
a  lofty  philosophy;  and  Byron  himself,  the  last  master  in 
the  school  of  Pope,  was  to  introduce  a  new  variety  of 
satire,  borrowed  from  the  Italians,  and  to  gain  for  himself 
the  distinction  of  being  perhaps  the  greatest  of  our  English 
verse-satirists. 


CHAPTER  III 
byron's  early  satiric  verse 

Fugitive  Pieces,  Byron's  first  volume  of  verse,  actually 
printed  in  November,  1806,  was  almost  immediately  sup- 
pressed at  the  instance  of  his  elder  friend  and  self-appointed 
mentor,  Rev.  J.  T.  Becher,  who  somewhat  prudishly  expos- 
tulated with  him  on  the  sensuous  tone  of  certain  passages. 
Of  the  thirty-eight  separate  poems  which  the  collection 
contains,  eight,  at  least,  may  be  classed  as  legitimate  satires. 
The  arrangement  of  the  different  items  is,  however,  unsys- 
tematic and  inconsistent.  The  lines  On  a  Change  of  Masters 
at  a  Great  Public  School,  comprising  a  prejudiced  and  impul- 
sive diatribe,  are  followed  by  the  Epitaph  on  a  Beloved 
Friend,  a  sincere  and  heartfelt  elegy;  while  the  conven- 
tionally sentimental  Lines  to  Mary,  On  Receiving  Her  Picture 
are  preceded  and  followed  by  satiric  poems.  These  unex- 
pected juxtapositions,  inexplicable  even  on  the  theory  of  an 
adherence  to  chronology,  suggest  at  once  the  curious  way  in 
which  Byron's  versatile  and  complex  nature  tended  to  show 
itself  at  various  times  in  moods  apparently  antithetical, 
permitting  them  often  to  follow  each  other  closely  or  even 
to  exist  at  practically  the  same  moment.  In  his  early  book 
two  characteristic  moods,  if  not  more,  may  be  recognized: 
the  romantic,  whether  melancholy,  sentimental,  or  mys- 
terious; and  the  satiric,  whether  savage  or  mocking.  It  is, 
of  course,  only  with  the  manifestations  of  the  latter  mood 
that  we  have  here  to  do. 

The   motives   which   urged   Byron,    at   this   early   age, 

39 


40  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

towards  satire  arose  chiefly  from  personal  dislike,  the  wish 
to  retaliate  when  some  one,  by  word  or  deed,  had  offended 
his  vanity  or  his  partialities.  His  animosities,  notoriously 
violent,  were  often,  though  not  always,  hasty,  irrational, 
and  unjustified.  His  satire  was  occasioned  by  his  emotions, 
not  by  his  reason,  a  fact  which  partly  accounts  for  his 
fondness  for  exaggeration  and  his  incapacity  for  weighing 
evidence.  As  to  his  choice  of  methods,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  careful  reading,  of  a  scope  and  diverseness 
remarkable  for  one  of  his  years,  had  given  him  a  compre- 
hensive acquaintance  with  the  English  poets,  and  notably 
with  Pope,  for  whom  his  preference  began  early  and  con- 
-tinued  long.  From  Pope,  and  from  Pope's  literary  de- 
scendant, Gifford,  Byron  derived  the  models  for  much  of  his 
preliminary  work  in  satire.  He  also  knew  Canning  and 
Mathias,  Lady  Hamilton,  Mant,  and  E.  S.  Barrett,  and,  in 
a  different  field,  he  was  familiar  with  the  lighter  verse  of 
Swift,  Prior,  Anstey,  the  Rolliad,  and  the  Anti- Jacobin. 
It  was  natural,  indeed  almost  inevitable,  that  these  first 
exercises  in  satire  should  reflect  something  of  the  style  and 
manner  of  poems  with  which  Byron  had  an  acquaintance 
and  of  which  he  had  made  a  study. 

The  first  printed  satire  of  his  composition  was  the  poem 
entitled  On  a  Change  of  Masters  at  a  Great  Public  School, 
dated  from  Harrow,  July,  1805,  when  his  period  of  residence 
there  had  almost  closed.  Dr.  Drury,  Headmaster  of 
Harrow,  having  resigned,  Dr.  Butler  had  been  chosen  to 
fill  the  vacancy.  Against  Dr.  Butler,  Byron  had  no  per- 
sonal grievance;  but  resenting  an  appointment  which,  pass- 
ing over  Dr.  Drury's  son,  Mark  Drury,  had  selected  an 
utter  stranger,  the  boy  launched  an  invective  at  a  teacher 
whom  he  scarcely  knew,  and  predicted  the  downfall  of  the 
school  under  his  administration.  Characteristically  enough 
he  was  soon  ready  to  avow  his  regret  for  his  rash  outburst. 
Referring  to  Dr.  Butler,  he  said  in  his  Diary :  "  I  treated  him 


byron's  early  satiric  verse  41 

rebelliously,  and  have  been  sorry  ever  since."  In  the  details 
of  Byron's  conduct  at  this  time  are  exemplified  several  of 
his  traits  as  a  satirist:  impetuous  judgment,  energetic  at- 
tack, and  eventual  repentance. 

The  use  of  the  Latin  type  names,  Probus  and  Pomposus, 
applied  to  Dr.  Drury  and  Dr.  Butler,  as  well  as  a  certain 
technical  skill  in  the  management  of  the  heroic  couplet, 
indicates  that  Byron  had  perused  Pope  to  his  own  advan- 
tage. Already  he  had  caught  something  of  the  tricks  of 
antithesis  and  repetition  of  which  the  elder  poet  had  been 
so  fond,  and  he  had  derived  from  him  the  power  of  condens- 
ing acrimony  into  a  single  pointed  couplet.     Such  lines  as : 

"Of  narrow  brain,  yet  of  a  narrower  soul, 
Pomposus  holds  you  in  his  harsh  control ; 
Pomposus,  by  no  social  virtue  sway'd. 
With  florid  jargon,  and  with  vain  parade,"^ 

have  a  hint  of  the  vigor  and  vehemence  of  Pope  himself, 
while  they  display,  at  the  same  time,  the  unfairness  and 
exaggerated  bitterness,  so  rarely  mitigated  by  good  humor, 
which  were  to  distinguish  the  longer  English  Bards. 

This  poem,  after  all,  was  a  mere  scholastic  experiment 
to  be  read  only  by  those  in  close  touch  with  events  at 
Harrow.  Fugitive  Pieces  contained  also  Byron's  earliest 
effort  at  political  satire.  An  ImprompUi,  unsigned,  and 
derogatory  to  Fox,  had  appeared  in  the  Morning  Post  for 
September  26,  1806,  only  a  few  months  after  the  death  of 
the  great  Whig  statesman,  and  the  schoolboy,  even  then 
headed  toward  liberalism,  came  to  the  Minister's  defence 
in  a  reply  published  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  in  October  of 
the  same  year.     The  opening  couplet : 

"Oh,  factious  viper!  whose  envenomed  tooth. 
Would  mangle  still  the  dead,  perverting  truth," 
^Poetry,  i.,  17. 


42  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IX  VERSE 

proved  that  he  possessed,  with  Gifford,  the  singular  faculty 
of  working  himself,  with  very  little  cause,  into  a  furious  rage. 
When  once  he  had  let  his  wrath  master  him,  he  was  uncon- 
trollable, and  he  found  satisfaction  in  nothing  so  much  as  in 
affixing  scurrilous  epithets  to  those  who  had  aroused  him. 
Until  he  had  studied  the  Italian  satirists,  he  was  almost 
incapable  of  cool  dissection  of  an  enemy's  faults  or  short- 
comings, and  even  then  he  never  acquired  the  virtue  of 
self-control. 

This  essay  at  political  satire  was  not  followed  by  other 
excursions  into  politics,  probably  because  of  the  poet's 
temporary  indiflference  to  the  situation  in  England  at  the 
time.  On  January  15,  1809,  in  writing  his  solicitor,  Hanson, 
concerning  his  entrance  into  the  House  of  Lords,  he  said : 
"I  cannot  say  that  my  opinion  is  strongly  in  favor  of  either 
party."'  Not  until  after  his  return  to  England  from  his 
travels  in  181 1  and  the  beginning  of  his  friendship  with 
Moore,  Hunt,  and  other  active  Whigs,  did  his  interest  in 
politics  revive  and  his  pen  become  a  party  weapon. 

The  last  of  the  three  classical  satires  in  couplets  to  be 
found  in  Fugitive  Pieces  is  Thoughts  Suggested  by  a  College 
Examination  (1806),  composed  at  Cambridge.  It  opens 
with  a  burlesque  sketch  of  Magnus,  a  college  tutor,  but 
soon  broadens  into  a  general  indictment  of  pedantry  and 
scholastic  sycophancy.  Byron  himself  had  desired  to  go  to 
Oxford,  and  he  never  felt  himself  in  sympathy  with  either 
the  instructors  or  the  educational  system  of  his  Alma  Mater. 
This  particular  poem,  however,  is  merely  an  outburst  of 
boyish  spleen,  remarkable  for  nothing  except  a  kind  of 
sauciness  not  unknown  in  the  university  freshman. 

Fugitive  Pieces  had  been  privately  printed,  w4th  the 
addition  of  twelve  poems,  and  with  two  poems  omitted, 
as  Poems  on  Various  Occasions  in  January,  1807,  and  in  the 
summer  of  the  same  year  a  new  collection,  consisting  partly 

'  Letters,  i.,  209. 


byron's  early  satiric  verse  43 

of  selections  from  the  two  previous  volumes  and  partly  of 
hitherto  unprinted  work,  was  published  under  the  title 
Hours  of  Idleness.  A  final  edition,  called  Poems  Original 
and  Translated,  appeared  in  1808,  comprising  thirty-eight 
separate  poems,  five  of  them  new.  Among  the  poems  in 
these  volumes,  and  other  verses  of  the  same  period,  drawn 
from  various  sources  and  since  gathered  together  in  Mr. 
Coleridge's  authoritative  edition  of  Byron's  poetry,  there 
are  several  satires,  many  of  them  interesting  in  themselves 
and  nearly  all  illuminating  in  their  relation  to  the  author's 
later  production. 

Childish  Recollections  (1806),'  a  sentimental  reverie,  is 
satiric  in  part,  though  it  is  devoted  mostly  to  eulogies  of 
Byron's  companions  at  Harrow.     In  the  couplet, 

"Let  keener  bards  delight  in  Satire's  sting, 
My  fancy  soars  not  on  Detraction's  wing," 

he  disavows  any  satiric  intent,  but  this  does  not  prevent 
him  from  indulging  in  some  additional  criticism  of  Dr. 
Butler.  Regret  for  this  passage  induced  Byron  to  omit 
the  entire  poem  from  Poems  Original  and  Translated,  and 
in  ordering  the  excision  he  wrote  Ridge:  "As  I  am  now 
reconciled  to  Dr.  Butler  I  cannot  allow  my  satire  to  appear 
against  him." 

Damoetas,  a  short  fragment  of  truculent  characteriza- 
tion, may  be  a  morbid  bit  of  self -portraiture,  but  is  more 
probably  a  cynical  sketch  of  some  acquaintance.  The  de- 
scription is  excessively  bitter : — 

"From  every  sense  of  shame  and  virtue  wean'd, 
In  lies  an  adept,  in  deceit  a  fiend; — 
Damoetas  ran  through  all  the  maze  of  sin, 
And  found  the  goal,  when  others  just  begin." 

'  It  is  probable  that  Byron's  verses  are  modelled  somewhat  on  the 
Epistle  on  His  Schoolfellows  at  Eton  (1766)  by  his  relative  and  guardian, 
Lord  Carlisle  (i 748-1 825). 


44  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

The  poems  so  far  mentioned  as  composed  by  Byron  before 
1809  have  been  formal  exercises  in  the  manner  of  Pope, 
tentative  efforts  in  the  genre  of  which  English  Bards  was  to 
be  Byron's  best  example.  Even  in  this  early  period,  how- 
ever, another  phase  of  his  satiric  spirit  appears,  which  hints 
of  the  future  Don  Juan;  it  trifles  in  a  lighter  vein,  with  less 
of  invective  and  more  of  banter,  and  the  style  is  lent  a 
humorous  touch  by  the  use  of  odd  and  uncommon  rhymes. 
The  half-genial  playfulness  of  these  poems  is  decidedly  dif- 
ferent from  the  earnestness  and  intensity  of  Damoetas,  and 
makes  them  akin  to  the  familiar  verse  of  Prior,  Cowper, 
and  Praed.  One  of  the  cleverer  specimens  is  the  poem  with 
the  elaborate  title  Lines  to  a  Lady  Who  Presented  to  the 
Author  a  Lock  of  Her  Hair  Braided  with  His  Own,  and  Ap- 
pointed a  Night  in  December  to  Meet  Him  in  the  Garden, 
in  which  thirteen  rhymes  out  of  twenty-two  are  double. 
These  verses,  printed  first  in  Fugitive  Pieces,  are  possibly  the 
earliest  in  which  evidence  may  be  found  of  a  sportive 
mood  in  Byron's  work.  Their  tone  is  both  ironic  and 
comic,  and  possible  romance  is  turned  into  something  ri- 
diculous by  a  satiric  use  of  realism.  The  poem  is  also  one 
of  the  few  examples  of  Byron's  employment  of  octosyllabic 
couplets  for  satiric  purposes. 

To  Eliza  (October  9,  1806),  written  to  Elizabeth  Pigot, 
Byron's  early  correspondent  and  confidante,  contains  some 
cynical  observations  on  marriage,  with  at  least  one  line 
that  might  have  fitted  into  Don  Juan  : 

"Though  women  are  angels,  yet  wedlock  's  the  devil." 

It  is  composed  in  stanzas  made  up  of  four  anapestic  lines. 
Granta,  a  Medley,  written  October  28,  1806,  in  one  of  the 
bursts  of  rhyming  not  uncommon  with  him  at  that  period, 
treats,  in  a  jocular  fashion,  of  college  life  at  Cambridge.  Its 
chief  interest  lies  in  some  of  its  peculiar  rhymes,  such  as 


byron's  early  satiric  verse  45 

triangle- wrangle,  historic  use-hypothenuse,  before  him- 
tore  'em,  crude  enough  in  themselves,  but  prophetic  of 
better  skill  to  come,  and  in  the  fact  that  it  uses  the  common 
quatrain  of  four-stressed  lines,  with  alternate  rhymes,  a 
measure  seldom  found  in  Byron's  satire.  To  the  Sighing 
Strephon,  in  a  six-line  stanza,  while  occasionally  serious,  is 
actually  the  reflection  of  a  frivolous  mood,  and  contains  light 
satire.  The  trivial  nature  of  these  poems  as  contrasted  with 
the  vehemence  of  some  other  of  his  early  satires,  indicates 
that  Byron's  satiric  spirit  even  at  that  time  was  fickle  and 
changeable,  dependent  often  on  his  environment  and  vary- 
ing constantly  in  response  to  alteratioxis  in  his  own  temper. 
It  is  noticeable  too  that  he  was  experimenting  with  several 
metrical  forms,  and  trying  his  hand  at  extraordinary  rhymes. 
Byron's  path  as  an  aspiring  author  was  not  always  a 
smooth  one,  even  before  his  name  became  generally  known. 
Fugitive  Pieces  had  been  harshly  criticised  by  several  of  his 
acquaintances,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  the  objections  of  the 
hypercritical  Becher  had  led  to  the  destruction  of  the 
entire  edition.  But  the  proud  young  lord  was  not  always 
tamely  submissive  to  correction.  In  December,  1806,  he 
wrote  in  Hudibrasric  couplets  the  verses  To  a  Knot  of  Un- 
generous Critics,  which  express  the  same  sort  of  injured 
pride  and  resentment  that  he  afterwards  showed  toward 
Jeffrey  and  the  Edinburgh  reviewers : 

"Rail  on,  rail  on,  ye  heartless  crew! 
My  strains  were  never  meant  for  you; 
Remorseless  rancour  still  reveal. 
And  damn  the  verse  you  cannot  feel." 

Byron's  anger  in  these  lines  was  directed  apparently  at  cer- 
tain ladies  of  Southwell,  the  little  town  where  most  of  his 
Harrow  vacations  were  spent ;  but  though  he  mentioned  one 
"portly  female,"  he  had  not  yet  reached  the  point  where  he 


46  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

ventured  to  call  his  enemies  by  name.  This  reserve,  how- 
ever, did  not  prevent  him  from  breaking  out  in  some  caustic 
personal  satire,  in  the  course  of  which  he  did  not  spare  the 
characters  of  the  ladies  in  question.  The  same  provocation 
led  him  to  compose  the  Soliloquy  of  a  Bard  in  the  Country 
(1806),  in  heroic  couplets,  in  which  he  seems  to  pick  three 
persons — "physician,  parson,  dame" — as  responsible  for 
the  adverse  comment  on  Fugitive  Pieces.  In  these  satires 
the  occasional  sharpness  of  single  phrases  does  not  conceal 
a  boyish  timidity,  which  is  evidence  that  Bj-ron  had  not 
yet  been  stung  enough  to  make  him  realize  or  display  his  full 
power.  Neither  of  the  poems  was  published  during  his  life- 
time, and  they  probably  served  only  to  gratify  his  revenge 
in  private  among  his  friends. 

Possibly  the  last,  and  certainly  the  most  cynical,  of  these 
early  satires  is  the  well-known  Inscription  on  the  Momime^it 
of  a  Newfoundland  Dog,  dated  by  Byron  from  Newstead 
Abbey,  October  30,  1808,  though  the  animal  did  not  die 
until  November  i8th.  The  twenty-six  lines  of  the  poem  are 
now  carved  on  a  monument  at  Newstead,  with  an  elaborate 
prose  epitaph.  Their  misanthropy  and  savagery  recall 
the  contempt  which  Swift  expressed  for  humanity  in  such 
poems  as  The  Beasts'  Confession  and  the  Lines  on  the  Day  of 
Judgment.  An  appropriate  text  for  Byron's  verses  might 
have  been  taken  from  Swift's  letter  to  Pope,  September  29, 
1725 :  "I  heartily  hate  and  detest  that  animal  called  man." 
Doubtless  Byron's  mood  is  due  in  part  to  an  affectation  of 
cynicism  which  reappeared  frequently  throughout  his  life; 
his  hatred  of  mankind,  if  not  actually  assumed,  was  by  no 
means  the  deep-seated  emotion  that  agitated  Swift. 

A  retrospective  survey  of  the  material  so  far  considered 
again  fastens  our  attention  on  the  singular  complexity  of 
Byron's  satiric  spirit.  In  a  body  of  work  comparatively 
meagre  in  content,  he  had  used  both  invective  and  mockery, 
severity  and  humor.     He  had  tried  various  metrical  forms, 


Byron's  early  satiric  verse  47 

some  dignified  and  some  colloquial.  There  is  less  to  be  said, 
however,  for  the  intrinsic  merit  of  the  satires.  No  one  of 
them  is  brilliant,  nor  does  any  one  suggest  marked  intellec- 
tual power.  The  invective  is  too  often  mere  indiscriminate 
ranting;  the  wit  is,  for  the  most  part,  sophomoric;  and  the 
assumption  of  superiority  in  one  so  young  is,  at  times, 
exceedingly  offensive.  Here  and  there  in  single  lines  and 
passages,  there  are  indications  of  latent  genius;  but  many 
other  young  poets  have  shown  as  much. 

These  exercises,  however,  imitative  and  crude  though 
they  were,  were  training  him  in  style  and  giving  him  confi- 
dence. When  his  anger  was  fully  roused  by  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  he  found  himself  prepared  with  an  instrument  for 
his  purposes.  English  Bards,  and  Scotch  Reviewers,  with  all 
its  faults,  is  not  the  product  of  an  amateur  in  satire,  but  of 
a  writer  who,  after  much  study  of  the  methods  of  Pope 
and  Gifford,  has  learned  how  to  express  his  wrath  in  virulent 
couplets. 


CHAPTER  IV 

"ENGLISH    BARDS,    AND    SCOTCH    REVIEWERS" 

English  Bards,  and  Scotch  Revieivers,  Byron's  first  long 
poem,  is,  like  the  Dunciad  and  the  Baviad,  a  satire  prin- 
cipally on  literary  people.  It  was  not,  however,  in  its  incep- 
tion, planned  to  be  either  so  pretentious  or  so  comprehensive 
as  it  afterwards  came  to  be.  In  a  letter  to  Elizabeth  Pigot, 
October  26,  1807,  when  Byron  was  still  an  undergraduate  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  he  referred  casually  to  "one 
poem  of  380  lines,  to  be  published  (without  my  name)  in  a 
few  weeks,  with  notes,"  and  added,  "The  poem  to  be  pub- 
lished is  a  satire."^  The  manuscript  draft  of  the  work  as 
thus  conceived  contained  360  lines. 

The  actual  stimulus  for  the  enlargement  of  the  poem  came, 
however,  from  an  external  source.  Injured  vanity,  the 
occasion  of  the  earlier  Soliloquy  of  a  Bard  in  the  Country, 
was  also  responsible  for  the  completion  of  the  half-formed 
satire  of  which   Byron  had  written  to   Miss  Pigot.     On 

—  February  26,  1808,  he  wrote  Becher:  "A  most  violent 
attack  is  preparing  for  me  in  the  next  number  of  the  Ediii- 
btirgh  Reviezv.''^  The  attack  alluded  to,  a  criticism  of 
Hours  of  Idleness,  unsigned  but  probably  contributed  by 
Brougham,  appeared  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  January, 

-  1807;  but  that  number,  in  accordance  with  a  practice  not 
then  uncommon,  was  delayed  for  over  a  month  in  going 
through  the  press,  and  was  not  actually  on  sale  until  March. 

^Letters,  i.,  47.  ,    'Letters,  i.,  183. 

48 


ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  49 

The  article  itself,  which  has  since  become  notorious  for  its 
bad  taste,  began  with  the  scathing  sentence:  "The  poetry 
of  this  young  lord  belongs  to  the  class  which  neither  gods 
nor  men  are  said  to  permit."  Its  attitude  was  certainly  not 
calculated  to  encourage  or  soothe  the  youthful  poet,  and 
with  his  usual  impetuosity,  he  at  once  sought  a  means  of 
redress.  Adding  an  introduction  and  a  conclusion  to  his 
embryonic  poem,  and  inserting  an  attack  on  Jeffrey,  whom 
he  supposed  to  be  his  critic,  he  had  the  whole  privately 
printed,  as  British  Bards,  in  the  autumn  of  1808.  This 
work,  revised  and  enlarged,  but  with  some  excisions,* 
making  a  poem  of  696  lines,  was  published  anonymously  in 
March,  1809,  under  the  title  English  Bards,  and  Scotch 
Reviewers.  fA  letter  of  January  25,  1809,  to  Dallas  proves 
that  the  poet  had  intended  to  conceal  his  authorship  by 
inserting  a  slighting  reference  to  "minor  Byron, "^  but  this 
ruse  was  not  retained  in  the  published  volume. 

The  satire,  as  Byron  told  Med  win,  made  a  prodigious 
impression.  A  second  edition  in^ctober,  1809,  was  ampli- 
fied by  several  interpolated  passages  so  that  it  comprised 
1050  lines.  A  third  and  a  fourth  edition  were  demanded 
while  Byron  was  on  his  travels,  and  the  fifth,  including  the 
1070  lines  of  the  poem  as  it  is  ordinarily  printed  to-day,  was 
suppressed  by  him  in  18 11.  In  the  second  and  succeeding 
editions  his  name  was  on  the  title-page. 

His  friend,  Dallas,  who  had  been  favored  with  the  perusal 
of  the  poem  in  manuscript,  had  suggested  as  a  title.  The 
Parish  Poor  of  Parnassus,  but  Byron,  with  some  wisdom, 
rejected  this  as  too  humorous,  ^  and  chose  English  Bards, 
and  Scotch  Reviewers.  The  present  title  indicates  clearly 
the  double  object  of  the  satire;  for  though  it  is,  in  one  sense, 
an  attempt  at  retaliation  upon  the  editors  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  it  is,  in  another,  an  eager  and  deliberate  defence  of 
the  Popean  tradition  in  poetry.     It  combines  the  motives 

^Letters,  i.,  167.  ^Letters,  i.,  211.  ^Letters,  i.,  212. 


50  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

of  Churchill's  Apology  and  Gifford's  Baviad  in  that  it  aims, 
like  the  first,  to  castigate  hostile  critics,  and  like  the  second, 
to  ridicule  contemporary  poets.  Personal  spite  urged  him 
to  assail  the  "Scotch  marauders,"  Jeffrey,  Homer,  and 
their  coterie;  but  he  had  no  individual  grudge  to  pay  in 
satirising  the  "Southern  dunces,"  Wordsworth,  Southey, 
Moore,  and  others.  His  attack  upon  them  was  actuated  by 
the  same  sort  of  narrow  spirit  which  he  had  condemned  in 
his  critics.  The  spectacle  of  Byron  posing  as  an  overthrower 
of  intolerant  reviewers,  and  in  the  same  poem  outdo- 
ing them  in  unjust  and  prejudiced  criticism  is  not  likely  to 
leave  the  reader  with  an  exalted  opinion  of  the  author's 
consistency. 

Presumably  influenced  by  the  example  of  Gifford,  Byron 
deluded  himself  into  believing  that  it  was  his  mission  to  pro- 
test against  the  excesses  of  romanticism  in  poetry,  arid  to 
engage  "the  swarm  of  idiots"  who  were  infecting  literature. 
He  was  to  be  "self-constituted  judge  of  poesy" ;  and  in  pur- 
suance of  his  design,  the  satire  became  a  gallery  of  many 
figures,  some  sketched  graphically,  others  merely  limned  in 
a  line  or  a  phrase.  It  is  to  Byron's  credit  that  his  chosen 
victims  were  not,  like  those  of  Pope  and  Gifford,  all  poetas- 
ters. Doubtless  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  chance  in 
the  causes  that  led  him  to  be  the  opponent  of  men  who  have 
since  been  recognized  as  representative  poets  of  their  age; 
but  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge, 
Southey  and  Moore,  may  not  have  been  fully  appreciated  in 
1809,  they  were,  nevertheless,  authors  of  reputation  whom 
it  was  not  altogether  discreet  to  attack.  As  for  Scott,  he 
was  the  favorite  writer  of  the  period  and  no  mean  antago- 
nist. Herford  points  out  the  daring  character  of  the  satire 
in  saying:  "It  is  a  kind  of  inverted  Dunciad;  the  novice 
falls  upon  the  masters  of  his  day,  as  the  Augustan  Master 
upon  the  nonentities  of  his." 

The  originality  of  the  satire  was  questioned  as  far  back 


"ENGLISH    BARDS,  AND   SCOTCH   REVIEWERS"  5I 

as  1822  in  Blakwood's  Magazine,  which,  in  a  Letter  to 
Paddy,  said:  "English  Bards  is,  even  to  the  most  wretched 
point  of  its  rhyme,  most  grossly  and  manifestly  borrowed."* 
That  this  is  inexcusable  exaggeration  hardly  needs  asserting ; 
yet  it  is  not  detrimental  to  Byron  to  state  that  he  had  been 
anticipated  in  many  of  his  criticisms  to  such  an  extent  that 
his  views  could  have  offered  little  of  novelty  to  his  readers, 
and  that  some  of  his  lines  are  reminiscent  of  the  work  of 
previous  English  satirists.  He  was  no  direct  plagiarist, 
but  he  had  a  tenacious  memory,  and  he  had  read  omniv- 
orously  in  Pope,  Churchill,  Gifford,  and  the  minor  satirists 
of  his  own  time.  It  is  not  strange  that  he  occasionally 
repeats  phrases  which  had  become,  by  inheritance,  the 
common  property  of  all  English  satirists. 

Continuing  a  practice  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  insti- 
tuted by  Oldham  and  adopted  by  Pope  and  Gifford,  Byron 
evidently  intended  to  follow  the  general  plan  of  the  first 
satire  of  Juvenal.  Pope,  in  the  Satires  and  Epistles  Imi- 
tated, had  printed  the  Latin  poems  of  Horace  in  parallel 
columns  with  his  own  verses.^  Gifford,  in  the  Baviad,  had 
placed  sections  of  the  text  of  Persius  in  notes  at  the  bottom 
of  the  page,  and  had  adhered  rather  closely  to  the  structure 
of  his  Latin  model.  Byron,  however,  soon  perceived  the 
restrictions  which  such  procedure  would  entail,  and  after 
indicating  three  examples  of  imitation  in  the  first  hundred 
lines,  neglected  Juvenal  in  order  to  pursue  an  independent 
course.^  Aside  from  these  acknowledged  imitations,  it  is 
interesting  to  notice  that  one  couplet  from  English  Bards, 

^  Blackwood's,  ix.,  461. 

^  This  practice  was  ridiculed  by  his  enemy,  Lady  Montagu,  in  the  lines: 
"On  the  one  side  we  see  how  Horace  thought, 
And  on  the  other  how  he  never  wrote." 

3  The  opening  couplet  of  English  Bards  is  a  paraphrase  of  the  first 
two  lines  of  Juvenal,  I.  Other  imitations  occur  in  lines  87-88  (Juvenal, 
I.,  17-18)  and  lines  93-94  (Juvenal,  I.,  19-21). 


52  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"I,  too,  can  scrawl,  and  once  upon  a  time 
I  poured  along  the  town  a  flood  of  rhyme," ' 

have  some  resemblance  to  two  lines  of  Gifford's  translation 
of  Juvenal's  first  satire, 

"I,  too,  can  write — and  at  a  pedant's  frown. 
Once  poured  my  fustian  rhetoric  on  the  town." 

These  few  instances  excepted,  there  is  no  evidence  in  the 
poem  of  borrowing  from  the  Latin  satirists,  nor  is  any  one 
of  them  mentioned  or  quoted  in  English  Bards. 

It  is  curious  that  Byron,  instead  of  striking  out  for  himself 
in  an  original  way,  should  have  repeated  complacently 
many  of  the  time-honored  ideas  which  had  become  almost 
fixed  conventions  in  satire.  It  is  customar}',  of  course,  for 
the  satirist  to  complain  of  contemporary  conditions  and  to 
sigh  for  the  good  old  days;  indeed,  it  would  be  possible  to 
collate  passages  from  satirists  in  an  unbroken  line  from 
Juvenal  to  William  Watson,  each  making  it  clear  that  the 
age  in  which  the  writer  lives  is  decadent.  As  far  back  as 
1523  we  find  in  the  verse  preface  to  Rede  Me  and  he  nott 
•wrothe,  a  couplet  full  of  this  lament : 

"This  worlde  is  worsse  than  evyr  it  was, 
Never  so  depe  in  miserable  decaye." 

Marvell,  in  An  Historical  Poem,  wishes  for  the  glorious 
period  of  the  Tudors;  Dryden,  in  the  Epistle  to  Henry 
Higden,  Esq.,  cries  out  against  "our  degenerate  times"; 
and  Pope,  in  the  Dunciad,  has  a  familiar  reference  to  "these 
degen'rate  days."  The  same  strain  is  repeated  in  Young,* 
in  Johnson, 3  in  Cowper,''  in  Gifford,^  and  even  in  Barrett.* 

'  English  Bards,  47-48.  '  Satires,  iii.,  15-18. 

J  London,  35-36.  *  Table  Talk,  571-572. 

s  Baviad,  215  ff.  *  All  the  Talents,  ii.,  46-47. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  53 

The  tone  of  Byron's  jeremiad  differs  very  little  from  that 
of  those  which  have  been  cited : 

"Time  was,  ere  yet  in  these  degenerate  days 
Ignoble  themes  obtained  mistaken  praise, 
When  Sense  and  Wit  with  Poesy  allied. 
No  fabled  Graces,  flourished  side  by  side."' 

It  is  not  inappropriate  to  point  out  that  this  ideal  era  to 
which  Byron  refers  had  been  termed  by  Pope,  who  lived 
in  it,  "a  Saturnian  Age  of  lead."^  It  required  a  maturer 
Byron  to  satirise  this  very  satiric  convention  as  he  did  in 
the  first  line  of  The  Age  of  Bronze: 

"The  'good  old  times' — all  times  when  old  are  good." 

Another  generally  accepted  custom  for  the  satirist  was 
the  apologetic  formality  of  calling  upon  some  supposedly 
more  powerful  censor  to  revive  and  scourge  folly.  Thus 
Young  had  asked, 

"Why  slumbers  Pope,  who  leads  the  tuneful  train. 
Nor  hears  the  virtue  which  he  loves  complain." ^ 

Whitehead's  State  Dunces  had  opened  with  a  similar  invoca- 
tion to  Pope.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  was 
Gifford  who  seemed  to  have  sunk  into  a  torpor.  Thus  we 
find  Canning  in  New  Morality  attempting  to  rouse  him : 

"Oh,  where  is  now  that  promise?  why  so  long 
Sleep  the  keen  shafts  of  satire  and  of  song?" 

Hodgson,  Byron's  friend,  in  his  Gentle  Alterative  had  also 
appealed  to  Gifford.  In  the  preface  to  the  second  edition 
of  English  Bards,  Byron  had,  in  his  turn,  regretted  the  list- 
lessness  of  Gifford,  and  had  modestly  professed  himself  a 

'  English  Bards,  103-106.         ^  Dunciad,  i.,  28.        3  Satires,  i.,  35-36. 


54  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  V^ERSE 

mere  country  practitioner  officiating  in  default  of  the 
regular  physician ;  while  in  the  satire  itself  he  again  sounded 
the  familiar  note,  repeating  the  interrogation  of  Canning : 

'"Why  slumbers  Gifford?'  once  was  asked  in  vain; 
Why  slumbers  Giflford?  let  us  ask  again."' 

The  emphatic  language  which  he  used  elsewhere  in  admit- 
ting his  indebtedness  and  even  his  inferiority  to  GifTord  is, 
however,  proof  of  the  sincerity  of  this  outburst. 

A  third  convention,  established  if  not  originated  in 
English  by  Pope,  is  the  obligation  felt  by  the  satirist  to  pbse 
as  a  defender  of  public  morals  and  to  insist  upon  his  ethical 
purpose.  Byron,  partly  afiEected  by  this  tradition,  partly 
believing  himself  to  be,  like  Gifford,  a  champion  of  law  and 
order  in  literature,  tries  to  persuade  his  public  that  he  is 
instigated  entirely  by  lofty  motives  in  giving  vent  to  his 
anger : 

"For  me,  who,  thus  unasked,  have  dared  to  tell 
My  country,  what  her  sons  should  know  too  well, 
Zeal  for  her  honor  bade  me  here  engage 
The  host  of  idiots  that  infest  her  age."^ 

It  will  not  do,  however,  to  take  this  assertion  too  seriously, 
especially  since  incitements  of  a  far  different  sort  seem  to 
have  occasioned  several  sections  of  the  poem. 

Besides  conforming  to  the  conventional  practice  of  his 
predecessors  in  these  three  important  respects,  Byron  linked 
himself  with  them  by  so  many  other  ties  that  even  in  mat- 
ters of  minor  detail  English  Bards  resembles  the  classical 
satires  of  Pope  and  Gifford.  As  a  satire  it  may  justly  be 
compared  with  the  Dunciad  and  the  Baviad,  and  may  be 
judged  by  the  standards  which  are  applied  to  them. 

'  English  Bards,  819-820.  '  English  Bards,  991-994. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  55 

An  analysis  of  English  Bards  is  rendered  difficult  by  the 
lack  of  any  coherent  plan  in  the  poem,  and  its  consequent 
failure  to  follow  any  logical  order  in  treating  its  material. 
The  author  wanders  from  his  avowed  theme  to  satirise  the 
depravity  of  the  Argyle  Institution  and  to  ridicule  the  anti- 
quarian folly  of  Aberdeen  and  Elgin,  slipping,  moreover, 
easily  from  critics  to  bards  and  from  bards  to  critics,  as  a 
train  of  observations  occurs  to  him.  The  same  excuse  may 
be  pleaded  for  him  that  Mathias  advanced  in  his  own  behalf : 
that  an  informing  personality  lends  a  kind  of  unity  to  the 
poem.  It  may  be  said,  too,  that  the  classical  satire,  not 
aiming  as  a  rule  to  be  compact  and  close  in  structure,  is  very 
likely  to  become  a  panorama  in  which  figures  pass  in  long 
review.  This  impression  is  conveyed  in  English  Bards  by 
the  use  of  stock  phrases  which  serve  to  introduce  each  new 
character  as  if  he  were  appearing  in  a  parade  of  celebrities.  ^ 

Under  the  false  impression  that  Jeffrey  was  responsible 
for  the  scornful  review  of  Hours  of  Idleness,  Byron  singled 
him  out  for  violent  abuse,  though  he  did  not  neglect  his 
colleagues,  "the  allied  usurpers  on  the  throne  of  taste." 
For  his  attack  on  critics  as  a  class  Byron  could  have  found 
much  encouragement  in  previous  English  satire.  Dryden 
had  expressed  a  common  enough  feeling  of  authors,  in  the 
lines : 

"They  who  write  ill,  and  they  who  ne'er  durst  write, 
Turn  critics  out  of  mere  revenge  and  spite." ^ 

Pope  had  condemned  the  "bookful  blockhead,  ignorantly 
read,"  who  knows  no  method  in  his  calling  but  censure.^ 
Young  had  carried  out  rather  tamely  in  his  third  satire  his 
boastful  intention  of  falling  upon  critics  : 

'  See  English  Bards,  144-145,  165-166,  202,  235,  etc. 

'  Prologue  to  the  second  part  of  the  Conquest  of  Granada,  1-2. 

3  Essay  on  Criticism,  610-630. 


56  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"Like  the  bold  bird  upon  the  banks  of  Nile, 
That  picks  the  teeth  of  the  vile  crocodile." 

Aside  from  these  more  or  less  incidental  aspersions,  at 
least  two  entire  satires  had  been  written  upon  critics. 
Cuthbert  Shaw,  enraged  by  what  he  thought  an  unfair 
account  of  his  Race  (1762)  in  the  Critical  Review,  prefixed 
to  the  second  edition  of  that  poem  an  Address  to  the  Critics, 
in  which  he  heaped  vituperation  on  all  the  reviewers  of  his 
time.  Only  a  few  months  before  this,  Churchill  in  his 
Apology  Addressed  to  the  Critical  Reviewers  (1761)  had  con- 
structed a  satire  very  similar  in  motive  and  plan  to  Bj^ron's 
English  Bards.  A  fairly  close  parallel  may,  in  fact,  be 
evolved  between  the  two  poems.  Both  are  replies  to  the 
severe  comments  of  critics  on  an  earlier  work';  both  assail 
Scotch  editors,  the  victim  being,  in  the  one  case,  Smollett, 
in  the  other,  Jeffrey ;  both  digress  from  the  main  theme,  the 
one  to  renew  the  controversy  with  actors  begun  in  the 
Rosciad,  the  other  to  satirise  a  new  movement  in  poetry. 

It  is  characteristic  of  both  Churchill  and  Byron  that, 
instead  of  attempting  to  defend  their  verses,  they  devote 
alltheir  attention  to  reviling  their  reviewers.  Byron's 
retaliation  is  less  vigorous  than  Churchill's;  indeed  it  may 
be  said  that  English  Bards  is  weakest  in  the  place  where  it 
should  have  been  most  effective — in  the  passage  directed 
at  Jeffrey.  Byron  compares  his  antagonist  to  the  hangman 
Jeffries,  and  describes  in  burlesque  fashion  the  duel  between 
him  and  Moore;  but  he  fastens  on  him  no  epithet  worth 

'  The  Apology  was  written  in  response  to  a  scathing  article  on  the 
Rosciad,  printed  in  the  Critical  Review  for  March,  1761.  This  periodi- 
cal, ultra-Tory  in  its  principles,  made  a  point  of  decrying,  any  work 
which  was  by  a  Whig  author,  or  expressed  any  sympathy  with  liberal 
ideas.  Though  the  editor,  Tobias  Smollett,  was  able  to  exculpate  him- 
self from  the  charge,  Churchill  deemed  him  accountable  for  the  uncom- 
plimentary review  and,  without  naming  him,  described  him  in  his  satire 
as  "alien  from  God,  and  foe  to  all  mankind." 


ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  57 

remembering  and  abuses  him  in  lines  which  are  neither 
incisive  nor  witty. 

Churchill  had  made  an  especial  point  of  the  anonymous 
character  of  the  articles  in  the  Critical  Review,  and  had  said 
of  the  editors : 

"Wrapt  in  mysterious  secrecy  they  rise, 
And,  as  they  are  unknown,  are  safe  and  wise."^ 

Hodgson,  in  his  Gentle  Alterative  (1809),  had  referred  to  a 
similar  custom  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  by  attacking, 

"Chiefly  those  anonymously  wise, 
Who  skulk  in  darkness  from  Detection's  eyes." 

The  allusion  in  English  Bards  to  "Northern  Wolves,  that 
still  in  darkness  prowl  "^  may  be  explained  by  Byron's 
objection  to  this  practice,  though  he  chooses  to  dwell  on  it 
very  little. 

The  Apology  had  accused  the  critics  of  dissimulation  and 
had  alleged  that  their  pages  were  full  of  misstatements — 

"Ne'er  was  lie  made  that  was  not  welcome  there. "^ 

Byron  made  the  same  charge  in  advising  contributors  to  the 
Edinburgh  Review  not  to  stick  to  the  truth, 

"Fear  not  to  lie,  't  will  seem  a  sharper  hit."'' 

It  is  quite  apparent  that  the  "self-elected  monarchs"  whom 
Churchill  treated  so  cavalierly  in  1761  had  no  more  popu- 
larity among  sensitive  authors  than  did  the  body  of  critics 
whom  Hodgson  styled  "self-raised  arbiters  of  sense  and 
wit,"^  whom  Gifford  spoke  of  as  "mope-eyed  dolts  placed 

*  The  Apology,  iio-iii.  'English  Bards,  429. 

5  The  Apology,  44.         *  English  Bards,  71.       s  Gentle  Alterative. 


58  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN'  VERSE 

by  thoughtless  fashion  on  the  throne  of  taste"'  and  whom 
Byron,  in  much  the  same  phraseology,  scorned  as, 

"Young  tyrants,  by  themselves  misplaced. 
Combined  usurpers  on  the  Throne  of  Taste. " 

Churchill,  rash  though  he  was,  was  cautious  enough  not 
to  print  his  opponents'  names,  and  they  are  to  be  discovered 
only  through  definite  allusions.  Bj^ron,  on  the  other  hand, 
brought  his  satire  into  the  open,  and  ridiculed  "smug 
Sydney,"  "classic  Hallam,"  "paltry  Pillans,"  "blundering 
Brougham,"  and  other  contributors  to  the  Edinburgh,  never 
hesitating  to  give  a  name  in  full.  Even  Lord  and  Lady 
Holland,  later  Byron's  close  friends,  were  included  among 
the  victims,  as  patrons  of  the  Whig  Review. 

These  resemblances  between  English  Bards  and  some 
earlier  satires  of  a  like  nature  do  not  prove  Byron  a  mere 
imitator.  Enough  has  been  shown,  perhaps,  to  make  it 
clear  that  his  work  belongs  to  a  definite  school  of  poetry, 
and  that  his  verses  show  no  marked  originality.  At  the 
same  time  he  never  stoops  to  direct  plagiarism,  and  what- 
ever similarities  exist  with  other  poems  are  largely  those 
of  style  and  spirit,  not  of  phraseology. 

But  there  is  much  more  in  E?iglish  Bards  than  the  out- 
burst against  critics;  dexterously  Byron  proceeded  himself 
to  don  the  garb  of  judge  and  to  pass  sentence  on  men  older 
and  better  known  than  he.  He  had  early  adopted  a  con- 
servative attitude  towards  the  versification  and  subject- 
matter  of  poetry,  a  position  which  he  preserved  in  theory 
throughout  his  life.^  Having  learned  to  use  glibly  the 
catchwords  of  the  Augustans,  he  ventured  to  praise  Crabbe, 
Campbell,  Rogers,  and  Gifford  for  adhering  tenaciously  to 

'  Baviad,  200-201. 

'  It  is  curious  that  Byron's  views  on  poetry  were  not  very  different 
from  those  held  by  Jeffrey.  Both  men  believed  in  maintaining  the  com- 
mon-sense traditions  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  59 

the  principles  of  Sense,  Wit,  Taste,  and  Correctness  estab- 
lished by  Pope.  Acting  on  this  basis,  he  was  justified 
in  condemning  his  own  age  for  its  disregard  of  what  he  con- 
sidered to  be  the  standard  models  of  poetic  expression.^ 
Under  the  tutelage  of  GifTord,  he  had  acquired  a  distaste 
for  novelty  which  led  him  to  look  upon  the  romanticists 
as  Giflford  looked  upon  the  Delia  Cruscans,  and  which! 
induced  him  to  carry  his  defence  of  custom  and  tradition' 
almost  to  the  verge  of  bigotry. 

Something  must  be  allowed,  too,  for  the  operation  of 
contemporary  ideas  upon  Byron.  The  leaders  of  the  so- 
called  Romantic  Movement,  partly  because  many  of  them 
had  associated  themselves  with  the  Jacobin  party  in 
England,  partly  because  their  poetry  seemed  strange,  were 
met  from  the  first  with  opposition  in  many  quarters.^ 
Language  of  a  tenor  hostile  to  their  work  may  be  met  with 
in  Mathias,  the  Anti-Jacobin,  Epics  of  the  Ton,  the  Simpli- 
ciad,  and  Hodgson's  Gentle  Alterative.  The  suggestions  for 
many  of  the  anti-romantic  views  since  attributed  to  Byron 
alone  came  doubtless  from  other  satirists,  whose  accusa- 
tions Byron  fitted  into  telling  phrases. 

An  excellent  illustration  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  Byron's 
unprovoked  attack  upon  Scott,  in  which  the  younger  poet, 
seizing  upon  the  well-known  fact  that  Scott  had  received 
money  for  his  verses,  terms  him  "hireling  bard"  and 
"Apollo's  venal  son."  Perhaps  Byron  may  have  shared 
with  Young  the  snobbish  notions  about  money  expressed 
in  the  latter's  couplet : 

^"  There  can  be  no  worse  sign  for  the  taste  of  the  times  than  the 
depreciation  of  Pope"  {Letters,  v,  559). 

*  W.  Tooke,  in  his  edition  of  Churchill's  Works  (1804),  expresses  one 
phase  of  contemporary  opinion  in  speaking  of  "the  simplicity  of  a  later 
school  of  poetry,  the  spawn  of  the  lakes,  consisting  of  a  mawkish  com- 
bination of  the  nonsense  verse  of  the  nursery  with  the  rhodomontade 
of  German  Mysticism  and  Transcendentalism"  (i.,  189). 


60  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"His  [Apollo's]  sacred  influence  never  should  be  sold; 
'T  is  arrant  simony  to  sing  for  gold."' 

It  is  more  probable,  however,  that  he  had  in  mind  a  passage 
from  Epics  of  the  Ton,  in  which  Scott's  "well-paid  lays" 
had  been  mentioned  in  a  contemptuous  manner.^  Even 
in  his  charge  that  the  plot  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel 
was  "incongruous  and  absurd,"  Byron  had  been  anticipated 
in  a  note  to  All  the  Talents.^  The  whole  tirade  against 
Scott  in  English  Bards  was  particularly  unfortunate  because, 
as  was  revealed  later,  that  author  had  remonstrated  with 
Jeffrey  on  the  "offensive  criticism"  of  Hours  of  Idleness. 

Byron's  antagonism  to  the  so-called  Lake  School  of  poets, 
Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Southey,  began  early  and  con- 
tinued long.  In  1809  it  is  improbable  that  he  had  any 
acquaintance  with  any  one  of  the  three ;  yet  he  placed  them 
in  a  conspicuous  and  unenviable  position  in  English  Bards. 
His  primary  motives  in  attacking  them  have  already  been 
indicated.  Considering  them  as  faddists  who  were  lowering 
the  dignity  of  the  author's  calling  and  degrading  poetic 
style,  he  followed  the  Simpliciad  in  condemning  them  for 
the  contemptible  nature  of  their  subject-matter,  for  their 
simple  diction,  for  their  fondness  for  the  wild  and  unnatural, 
and  for  their  studied  avoidance  of  conventionality. 

Southey 's  first  verse  had  appeared  in  1794;  while  Words- 
worth and  Coleridge  had  been  really  introduced  to  the 

'  Epistles  to  Pope,  ii.,  165. 

^  To  this  utterly  unjust  stricture  Scott  made  a  calm  reply  in  his 
Preface  to  Marmion  (1830):  "I  never  could  conceive  how  an  arrange- 
ment between  an  author  and  his  publishers,  if  satisfactory  to  the  persons 
concerned,  could  afford  matter  of  censure  to  any  third  party."  Cer- 
tainly Byron  came  to  be  a  gross  offender  in  this  respect  himself,  and 
when,  in  1819,  he  was  haggling  with  Murray  over  the  price  of  Don  Juan, 
these  boyish  censures,  if  they  met  his  eye,  must  have  roused  a  smile. 

^  "The  plot  is  absurd,  and  the  antique  costume  of  the  language  is 
disgusting,  because  it  is  unnatural  "  {All  the  Talents,  page  68). 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS"  6l 

public  through  Lyrical  Ballads.  Opposition  to  them  and 
their  theories  had  begun  to  be  shown  almost  immediately, 
allusions  to  Southey,  in  particular,  being  fairly  common  in 
satiric  literature  before  1809.  Mathias  had  said  ironically 
with  reference  iq  Southey's  first  poem : 

"I  cannot  .  .   . 
Quit  the  dull  Cam,  and  ponder  in  the  Park 
A  six-weeks  Epick,  or  a  Joan  of  Arc."^ 

In  the  Anti-Jacohin  Southey's  poetry  had  been  ludicrously 
parodied,  and  the  members  of  the  Lake  School  had  been 
branded  as  revolutionists.  Epics  of  the  Ton  had  ridiculed 
Southey  and  Wordsworth,  ^  and  the  Simpliciad  had  accused 
all  three  of  "childish  prattle."^  Byron,  then,  was  no  pio- 
neer in  his  satire  on  the  romanticists,  nor  did  he  contribute 
anything  original  to  the  controversy.  The  frequency  and 
rapidity  with  which  Southey  had  published  long  epics  had 
impressed  others  before  Byron  cried  in  English  Bards: 

"Oh,  Southey!  Southey!  cease  thy  varied  song! 
A  bard  may  chaunt  too  often  and  too  long."'* 

'  Pursuits  of  Literature,  iv.,  397-398. 

*"Then  still  might  Southey  sing  his  crazy  Joan, 
To  feign  a  Welshman  o'er  the  Atlantic  flown. 
Or  tell  of  Thalaba  the  wondrous  matter, 
Or  with  clown  Wordsworth,  chatter,  chatter,  chatter." 

{Epics  of  the  Ton,  31-34.) 
^After  some  praise  of  the  three  poets,  the  dedication  of  the  Sifnpliciad 
closes  with  the  words:    "I  lament  the  degradation  of  your  genius,  and 
deprecate  the  propagation  of  your  perverted  taste." 

1  Pope,  in  the  Dunciad,  had  bantered  Sir  Richard  Blackmore,  author 
of  epics,  in  the  lines: — 

"All  hail  him  victor  in  both  gifts  of  song, 
Who  sings  so  loudly,  and  who  sings  so  long." 

{Dunciad,  ii.,  267-268.) 


62  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

In  this  early  satire  Byron  showed  no  personal  animosity 
towards  Southey;  he  introduced  him  merely  as  a  too  pro- 
lific and  too  eccentric  scribbler,  to  be  jeered  at  rather  than 
hated.  The  fierce  feud  between  the  two  men  was  of  a  later 
growth. 

Picking  Southey  as  the  leader  of  the  romanticists,  Byron 
treats  Wordsworth  as  merely  a  "dull  disciple,"  silly  in  his 
choice  of  subjects  and  prosaic  in  his  poetry,  "the  meanest 
object  of  the  lowly  group."  Perhaps  the  most  striking  de- 
fect in  the  satire  levelled  at  this  poet  is  the  lack  of  any 
recognition  of  his  ability,  an  omission  all  the  more  noticcr 
able  because  Byron,  in  the  last  two  cantos  of  Childe  Harold, 
was  influenced  so  strongly  by  Wordsworth's  conception  of 
the  relation  between  man  and  nature?^  Coleridge  receives 
even  less  consideration.  He  is  "the  gentle  Coleridge — to 
turgid  ode  and  tumid  stanza  dear,"  and  is  ridiculed  mainly 
because  of  his  Lines  to  a  Young  Ass,  a  poem  which  had 
previously  excited  the  mirth  of  the  SimpUciad. '  The  slash- 
ing manner  in  which  the  boy  satirist  disposes  of  his  great 
contemporaries  is  almost  unparalleled.^ 

Byron's  satire  on  the  Rev.  Samuel  Bowles  (1762-1850) 
illustrates  one  phase  of  his  veneration  for  Pope,  and  con- 
nects him  with  another  Pope  enthusiast,  Gifford.  In  the 
Baviad  Gifford  had  gone  out  of  his  way  to  confront  and 
refute  Weston,  who,  in  an  article  in  the  Gentleman' s  Maga- 
zine, had  adduced  evidence  to  prove  that  Pope's  moral 
character  was  not   above   reproach.     Gifford,   unable   to 

The  possibility  that  Byron  may  have  had  this  passage  in  mind  is 
increased  by  his  note  to  his  lines  in  English  Bards  :  "  Must  he  [Southey] 
be  content  to  rival  Sir  Richard  Blackmore  in  the  quantity  as  well  as  the 
quality  of  his  verse?  " 

'  SimpUciad,  212-213. 

'  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  practically  every  charge  that 
Byron  brings  against  the  "Lakists"  has  a  counterpart  in  Mant's 
Simpliciad,  printed  only  a  year  before  Byron's  poem. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS*'  63 

dispute  the  validity  of  the  facts,  had  contented  himself  with 
describing  the  critic  as  "canker'd  Weston,"  and  terming 
him  in  a  note  "this  nightman  of  literature."^  Bowles, 
whose  early  sonnets  (1789)  had  attracted  the  admiration 
of  Coleridge,  published  in  1807  an  edition  of  Pope's  Works 
in  ten  volumes,  in  which  he  followed  Weston  in  not  sparing 
the  infirmities  and  mendacities  of  the  great  Augustan. 
The  effect  of  this  work  on  Byron  was  like  that  of  Weston's 
on  Gilford,  and  the  result  was  that  Bowles  was  pilloried  in 
English  Bards  as  "the  wretch  who  did  for  hate  what  Mallet 
did  for  hire."  Nor  did  the  quarrel  end  here.  It  grew 
eventually  into  a  heated  controversy  between  Bowles  and 
Byron,  carried  on  while  the  latter  was  in  Italy,  in  the  course 
of  which  Byron  was  provoked  into  calling  Pope  "the  great 
moral  poet  of  all  times,  of  all  climes,  of  all  feelings,  and  of 
all  stages  of  existence."^  So  strongly  did  he  feel  on  the 
matter  that  he  wrote,  even  as  late  as  1821,  concerning 
English  Bards:  "The  part  which  I  regret  the  least  is  that 
which  regards  Mr.  Bowles,  with  reference  to  Pope."^ 
Byron's  exaltation  of  Pope  was  made  a  positive  issue  in  the 
unreserved  commendation  which  he  gave  to  Campbell, 
Rogers,  and  Crabbe,  all  three  of  whom  were,  in  most  re- 
spects, firm  in  their  allegiance  to  that  master's  principles  of 
poetry. 

An  odd  freak  of  fancy  led  Byron  to  pose  in  English  Bards  '^Wx'-a 
as  a  watchful  guardian  of  morality  in  literature,  though 
even  at  that  date  he  was  the  author  of  verses  which  are  not 
altogether  blameless.  That  he  should  upbraid  Monk  Lewis, 
Moore,  and  Strangford  as  "melodious  advocates  of  lust" 
may  well  seem  extraordinary  to  the  reader  who  recalls  the 
poem  which  Byron  sent  to  Pigot,  August  10,  1806,  asking 
that  it  be  printed  separately  as  "improper  for  the  perusal 
of  ladies."''     The  truth  is  that  Byron  was  again  treading  in 

'  Baviad,  248-261.  ^  Letters,  v,  590. 

3  Letters,  v.,  539.  ^  Letters,  i.,  104. 


64  LORD  nVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

the  steps  of  others.  The  virtuous  but  somewhat  prurient 
Mathias,  excited  by  Lewis's  novel  Ambrosio,  or  the  Monk 
(1795).  which  has  given  the  writer  notoriety  and  a  nick- 
name, had  assailed  the  author  in  Pursuits  of  Literature,^ 
and  the  supposed  voluptuousness  of  the  story  had  not  es- 
caped the  notice  of  the  Anti- Jacobin  and  Epics  of  tJie  Ton. 
Byron  had  thus  more  than  one  precedent  for  his  ironic 
reference  to  Lewis's  "chaste  descriptions."  Moore's 
Epistles,  Odes,  and  other  Poems  (1806)  had  been  censured 
by  the  Edinburgh  Review  in  an  article  which  described 
Moore  as  "the  most  licentious  of  modern  versifiers."  All 
the  Talents  had  questioned  Moore's  morality,  and  Epics  of 
the  Ton  had  mentioned  a  writer  who, 

"Like  Tommy  Moore  has  scratch'd  the  itching  throng, 
And  tickled  matrons  with  a  spicy  song." 

Byron  had  been  a  delighted  reader  of  the  Irish  poet  and 
had  been  influenced  by  him  in  the  more  sentimental  verses 
of  Hours  of  Idleness;  nevertheless  he  repeated  the  imputa- 
tions of  the  other  satirists  in  referring  to  him  as 

"Little!  young  Catullus  of  his  day. 
As  sweet,  but  as  immoral,  as  his  lay." 

To  Viscount  Strangford  (i  780-1 855),  of  whose  translation 
of  Camoens  he  had  formerly  been  very  fond,  Byron  offered 
advice : 

"Be  warm,  but  pure;  be  amorous,  but  be  chaste." 

In  the  same  vein  as  this  grave  admonition  are  the  remarks 
which  the  poet  makes  upon  the  Argyle  Institution,  founded 

'  Mathias  had  asserted  that  Moore  "had  neither  scrupled  nor  blushed 
to  depict,  and  to  pubUsh  to  the  world,  the  arts  of  systematic  seduction, 
and  to  thrust  upon  the  nation  the  most  open  and  unqualified  blasphemy 
against  the  very  code  and  volume  of  our  religion  "  {Pursuits  of  Liter aturst 
Preface  to  Dialogue  IV.). 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS"  65 

by  Colonel  Greville  as  a  resort  for  gambling  and  dancing. 
Digressing  for  a  while  without  any  logical  reason,  Byron 
proceeds  to  condemn  social  follies,  especially  those  fostered 
by  "blest  retreats  of  infamy  and  ease."  The  passage 
includes  some  lines  on  round  dancing,  which  anticipate 
Bryon's  attack  on  that  amusement  in  his  later  satire.  The 
Waltz. 

Gifford's  Mceviad,  after  making  some  final  thrusts  at  the 
Delia  Cruscans,  had  shifted  its  attack  to  contemporary 
actors  and  dramatists.  That  satire  upon  them  was  justi- 
fied may  be  gathered  from  Gifford's  remark  in  his  Preface : 
"I  know  not  if  the  stage  has  been  so  low  since  the  days  of 
Gammer  Gurton  as  at  this  hour."^  During  the  fifteen 
years  following  the  date  of  this  statement  it  cannot  be 
averred  that  circiimstances  made  it  any  the  less  applicable 
to  the  theatrical  situation  in  England,  and  Byron,  in  1809, 
in  ridiculing  the  "motley  sight"  which  met  his  eyes  on  the 
stage  of  his  time,  had  perhaps  even  more  justification  than 
Gifford  had  had  in  1794.^ 

Of  the  dramatists  whom  Gifford  had  mentioned  with  dis- 
favor, only  two,  Frederick  Reynolds  (i  784-1 841)  and  Miles 
Andrews  (died  18 14),  were  selected  for  notice  by  Byron. 
What  the  McBviad  had  called  "Reynolds'  flippant  trash" 
was  still  enjoying  some  vogue,  and  English  Bards  took  occa- 
sion to  speak  of  the  author  as  "venting  his  'dammes!' 
*  poohs ! '  and  '  zounds ! '  "  ^  Miles  Andrews,  whose  ' '  Wonder- 
working poetry"  had  been  laughed  at  in  the  Baviad,  was 
barely  mentioned  by  Byron  as  a  writer  who  "may  live  in 

'  Preface  to  Mceuiad,  page  59,  Note. 

*  See  the  account  of  this  period  in  Thorndike's  Tragedy,  chapter  x. 
5  Byron  may  have  taken  a  suggestion  from  some  Unes  of  Children  of 
Apollo: 

"But  in  his  diction  Reynolds  grossly  errs; 
For  whether  the  love  hero  smiles  or  mourns, 
'T  is  oh!  and  ah!  and  oh!  by  turns." 


66  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

prologues,  though  his  dramas  die."  In  general  the  satire 
on  the  stage  in  English  Bards  consists  of  uninteresting 
remarks  on  some  mediocre  dramatists,  among  them  Theo- 
dore Hook  (1788-1841),  Andrew  Cherry  (1762-1812),  James 
Kenney  (1780-1849),  Thomas  Sheridan  (1775-1817),  Lum- 
ley  Skeffington  (1762-1850),  and  T.  J.  Dibdin  (1771-1841). 
It  is  a  fair  contention  that  this  digression  is  the  dreariest 
portion  of  the  poem.  The  interpolated  lines  on  the  Italian 
Opera,  sent  to  Dallas,  February  22,  1809,  after  an  evening 
spent  at  a  performance,  attack  that  amusement  on  the 
ground  of  its  indecency.  They  are  akin  in  spirit  to  similar 
passages  in  Young,'  Pope,^  Churchill, ^  and  Bramston.'' 

The  satire  on  less-known  poets  is  indiscriminate  and  not 
always  discerning.  Erasmus  Darwin  (1731-1802),  who,  in 
his  Botanic  Garden  (1789-92),  was  a  decadent  imitator  of 
Pope,  is  contemptuously  dismissed  as  "a  mighty  master  of 
unmeaning  rhyme."  Another  once  popular  bard,  William 
Hayley  (i  745-1 820),  still  remembered  as  the  friend  and 
biographer  of  Cowper,  is  branded  with  a  stinging  couplet : 

"His  style  in  youth  or  age  is  still  the  same, 
Forever  feeble  and  forever  tame." 

The  Delia  Cruscans  are  passed  over  as  already  crushed  by 
Gififord,  and  "sepulchral  Grahame,"  "hoarse  Fitzgerald," 
the  Cottles  from  Bristol,  Maurice,  and  the  cobbler  poets, 
Blackett  and  Bloomfield,  get  only  a  fleeting  sneer.  H.  J. 
Pye,  the  laureate,  once  a  butt  of  Mathias,  is  mentioned 
only  once. 

Two  characterizations,  however,  are  distinguished  above 
the  others  by  their  singular  virulence.  The  first  was  a 
vicious  onslaught  on  Lord  Carlisle,  the  friend  of  Fox, 
Byron's  relative  and   guardian,   who  had   been  included 

'  Satires,  iii.,  197.  ^  Dunciad,  iv.,  45-70. 

3  Rosciad,  723-728.  *  The  Man  of  Taste. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS"  67 

among  the  sentimental  rhymsters  in  Tickell's  Wreath  of 
Fashion.  To  him  his  ward  had  dedicated  Poems  Original 
and  Translated;  but  the  peer's  carelessness  about  intro- 
ducing Byron  into  the  House  of  Lords  had  irritated  the 
young  poet,  and  he  changed  what  had  previously  been  a 
flattering  notice  in  English  Bards  into  a  ferocious  assault : 

"The  puny  schoolboy  and  his  early  lay 
Men  pardon,  if  his  follies  pass  away ; 
But  who  forgives  the  Senior's  ceaseless  verse,  ■ 

Whose  hairs  grow  hoary  as  his  rhymes  grow  worse."    ; 

The  sharpest  satire  in  the  poem  was  inserted  merely  to 
satisfy  a  personal  grudge.  Hewson  Clarke  (i 787-1 832), 
editor  of  The  Satirist,  a  monthly  magazine,  had  made  sport 
of  Hours  oj  Idleness  in  an  issue  for  October,  1807,  and  had 
harshly  reviewed  Poems  Original  and  Translated  in  August, 
1808.  Byron  replied  in  a  passage  full  of  violent  invective, 
describing  Clarke  as 

"A  would-be  satirist,  a  hired  Buffoon, 
A  monthly  scribbler  of  some  low  Lampoon."^ 

These  lines  Byron  never  repudiated;  he  appended  to  them 
in  1816  the  note:  "Right  enough:  this  was  well  deserved 
and  well  laid  on."^ 

'  One  line  of  Byron's  attack, 

"Himself  a  living  libel  on  mankind," 

recalls  Murphy's  address  to  Churchill, 

"Thy  look  's  a  hbel  on  the  human  race." 

*  In  the  Scourge,  a  new  venture  of  Clarke's  begun  in  1810,  that  editor 
published  another  scurrilous  attack  on  Byron,  involving  also  the  poet's 
mother.  An  action  for  libel  which  Byron  intended  to  bring  was  for 
some  reason  abandoned,  though  not  without  some  caustic  words  from 
him  about  "the  cowardly  calumniator  of  an  absent  man  and  a  defence- 
less woman"  {Letters,  i.,  324). 


68  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

English  Bards  closes  with  a  defiance  and  a  challenge. 
The  poet,  then  only  twenty-one,  repeating  that  his  only 
motive  has  been  "to  sternly  speak  the  truth,"  dares  his 
opponents  to  meet  him  in  the  open  and  declares  his  willing- 
ness to  engage  them.  There  is  something  amusing  in  the 
pompous  way  in  which  Byron,  throwing  down  the  gauntlet, 
boasts  of  his  own  indifference  and  callousness  to  criticism. 
He  had,  however,  achieved  at  least  one  of  his  two  objects: 
he  had  answered  hostile  reviewers  in  a  manner  which  made 
it  plain  that  he  would  not  submit  unresistingly  to  super- 
cilious comment  on  his  work.  Assuredly  he  had  turned  the 
weapons  of  his  critics  against  themselves. 

Nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  Byron,  his  wrath 
for  the  most  part  evaporated,  should  regret  his  bitterness 
in  cases  where  his  hasty  judgment  had  carried  him  too  far. 
On  his  way  home  from  Greece  he  wrote  Dallas:  "At  this 
period  when  I  can  think  and  act  coolly,  I  regret  that  I  have 
written  it."^  The  story  of  the  events  leading  to  the  sup- 
pression of  the  fifth  and  last  edition  may  be  given  in  the 
words  of  Byron  to  Leigh  Hunt,  October  22,  1815:  "I  was 
correcting  the  fifth  edition  of  E.  B.  for  the  press,  when 
Rogers  represented  to  me  that  he  knew  Lord  and  Lady 
Holland  would  not  be  sorry  if  I  suppressed  any  further 
publication  of  that  poem;  and  I  immediately  acquiesced, 
and  with  great  pleasure,  for  I  had  attacked  them  upon  a 
fancied  and  false  provocation,  with  many  others;  and  nei- 
ther was,  nor  am,  sorry  to  have  done  what  I  could  to  stifle 
that  furious  rhapsody."^  The  result  was  that  the  whole 
impression  of  this  edition  was  burned,  only  a  few  copies 
being  rescued,  and  when,  in  1816,  Byron  left  England 
forever,  he  signed  a  Power  of  Attorney  forbidding  republi- 
cation in  any  form.^     His  mature  opinion  of  the  work  is 

'  Letters,  i.,  314.     See  also  Letters,  ii.,  312;  iii.,  192. 

»  Letters,  ii.,  326.  •J  Letters,  v.,  539. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS"  69 

expressed  in  a  comment  written  at  Diodati  in  18 16:   "The  ^ 
greater  part  of  this  Satire  I  most  sincerely  wish  had  never    Y 
been  written — not  only  on  account  of  the  injustice  of  some    \ 
of  the  critical  and  some  of  the  personal  part  of  it — but  the  .  ' 
tone  and  temper  are  such  as  I  cannot  approve." 

It  now  remains  to  compare  English  Bards  with  other 

examples  of  English  classical  satire,  if  one  may  apply  that 

title  to  poems  which  use  the  heroic  couplet  and  follow  the 

-^;  methods  employed  by  Pope.     Byron's  versification  in  his 

.■^  early  satires  shows  the  effect  of  a  careful  study  of  Pope. 
It  is  singularly  free  from  double  rhymes,  there  being  but 
five  instances  of  them  in  English  Bards.  ^     Byron  was  some- 

^  what  more  sparing  than  Pope  m  his  use  of  the  rim-on  line. 

^^Adopting  as  a  basis  of  judgment  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Gosse 
that  "with  occasional  exceptions,  the  presence  or  want  of  a 

>  *  mark  of  punctuation  may  be  made  the  determining  ele- 
ment," we  find  that,  of  the  1070  lines  in  English  Bards, 
approximately  loi  are  of  the  run-on  variety,  that  is,  about 
ten  out  of  every  hundred.  In  Mr.  Gosse's  collation  of 
typical  passages  from  other  poets,  he  estimates  that  Dryden 
has  II,  Pope  4,  and  Keats  40  run-on  lines  out  of  every 
hundred.  In  the  whole  length  of  Byron's  poem  there  is  but 
one  run-on  couplet ;  in  a  hundred  consecutive  lines  selected 
by  Mr.  Gosse,  Dryden  has  one  such  example  and  Pope  none. 
Twice  Byron  employs  the  triplet,^  and  he  has  two  alexan- 
drines.^ The  medial  caesura  after  the  4th,  5th,  or  6th  foot 
of  the  line  occurs  with  great  regularity  as  it  does  in  Pope's 
work.  There  are  a  few  minor  peculiarities  in  rhyming, ^ 
but  in  general  the  rhymes  are  pure.  In  summarizing,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  Byron  adhered  closely  to  the  metrical 
principles  established  by  Pope.  Not  until  Hunt,  Keats, 
and  Shelley  introduced  the  looser  and  less  monotonous 

^English  Bards,  209-210;  231-232;  239-240;  253-254;  909-910. 
=  Ibid.,  415-417;  684-686.  3  Ibid.,  417,  1022. 

■•  Ibid.,  608-609;  624-625;  656-657. 


70  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

system  of  versification  used  in  Rimini,  Endymion,  and 
Epipsychidion,  was  the  heroic  couplet  freed  from  the 
shackles  with  which  Pope  had  bound  it. 

Byron's  candid  acknowledgment  that,  in  English  Bards, 
he  was  venturing  "o'er  the  path  which  Pope  and  Gifford 
trod  before"  suggests  at  once  a  comparison  of  his  work  with 
that  of  the  two  earlier  authors.  Although  the  Diinciad 
and  English  Bards  are  alike  in  that  they  are  in  the  same 
metre  and  actuated  by  much  the  same  motive,  there  are 
many  differences  in  execution  between  the  poems.  The 
Diinciad  is,  as  the  Preface  of  "Martinus  Scriblerus"  states, 
a  true  mock-heroic,  with  a  fable  "one  and  entire"  dealing 
with  the  Empire  and  the  Goddess  of  Dulness,  with  ma- 
chinery setting  forth  a  "continued  chain  of  allegories,"  and 
with  a  succession  of  incidents  and  episodes  imitated  from 
epic  writers.  English  Bards,  beginning  as  a  paraphrase  of 
Juvenal,  has  no  real  action  and  is  composed  of  a  series  of 
descriptions  and  characterizations,  joined  by  some  neces- 
sary connective  material.  Pope's  method  of  satire  is  fre- 
quently indirect :  he  involves  his  victims  in  the  plot,  making 
them  ridiculous  through  the  situations  in  which  he  places 
them.  Instead  of  inveighing  against  Blackmore,  Pope 
pictures  him  as  victor  in  a  braying  contest.  Byron,  on  the 
other  hand,  uses  this  method  only  once  in  English  Bards — 
in  burlesquing  the  duel  between  Jeffrey  and  Moore.  In- 
stinctively he  prefers  taking  up  his  adversaries  one  by  one 
and  covering  each  with  abuse.  The  Diinciad,  with  rare 
exceptions,  assails  only  personal  enemies  of  the  satirist, 
and  these,  for  the  most  part,  men  already  despised  and 
defenceless;  Byron  attacks  many  prominent  writers  of 
whom  he  knows  nothing  except  their  work,  and  against 
whom  he  has  no  grievance  of  a  private  nature.  Thus  in 
plan  and  operation  the  two  satires  present  some  striking 
divergences. 

So  far  as  matters  of  detail  are  concerned,  English  Bards  is 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  7 1 

not  always  in  the  manner  of  the  Diinciad  and  the  other 
satires  of  Pope.  It  has  been  observed  of  Drj'den,  and 
occasionally  of  Pope,  that  at  its  best  their  satire,  however 
much  it  may  be  aimed  at  particular  persons,  tends  to 
become  universal  in  its  application,,  just  as  had  been  the 
case  \Yith  the  finest  work  of  the  Latin  satirists.  Horace's 
Bore,  for  instance,  was  doubtless  once  a  definite  Roman 
citizen;  Dryden's  Buckingham  has  a  place  in  history:  but 
the  satire  on  them  is  pointed  and  effective  when  applied 
to  their  counterparts  in  the  twentieth  century.  The  same 
is  true  of  Pope's  Atticus,  who  is  described  in  language  which 
is  both  specific  and  general,  fitted  both  to  Addison  and  to  a 
definite  type  of  humanity.  The  faculty  of  thus  creating 
types  was  not  part  of  Byron's  art.  For  one  thing,  he  seldom, 
except  in  some  of  his  earliest  satires,  employs  type  names, 
and  he  carefully  prints  in  full,  without  asterisks  or  blank 
spaces,  the  names  of  those  whom  he  attacks.  His  accusa- 
tions are  too  precise  to  admit  of  transference  to  others,  and 
his  epithets,  even  when  they  are  unsatisfactory,  cannot  be 
dissevered  from  the  one  to  whom  they  apply.  The  satire 
on  Wordsworth,  illustrated  as  it  is  by  quotations  and  by 
references  to  that  author's  poetry,  is  appropriate  to  him 
alone,  and  would  have  soon  been  forgotten  had  it  not  been 
for  the  eminence  of  the  victim.  It  is  otherwise  with  Pope's 
description  of  Sporus,  which  is  often  applied  to  others, 
even  when  it  is  forgotten  that  the  original  Sporus  was  Lord 
Hervey. 

In  many  respects  Byron  had  more  in  common  with 
Giflford  than  with  Pope.  It  is  Gifford  to  whom,  in  English 
Bards,  he  refers  so  often  as  a  master;  it  is  he  whom  he 
mentions  in  1811  as  his  "Magnus  Apollo"*;  and  it  was  of 
the  Baviad  and  the  McBinad  that  he  was  thinking  when  he 
conceived  his  plan  of  hunting  down  the  "clamorous  brood 
of  Folly." 

•  Letters,  ii.,  27. 


\ 


72  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Pope,  preserving  in  his  satire  a  calm  deliberation  which 
enabled  him  both  to  conceal  and  to  concentrate  his  inward 
wrath,  was  capable,  even  when  most  in  a  rage,  of  a  sustained 
analysis  of  those  whom  he  hated,  and  seldom  let  his  temper 
sweep  him  off  his  feet.  Gifford  and  Byron  prefer  a  more 
slashing  and  a  less  reserved  method.  Dallas  once  said  of 
Byron:  "His  feelings  rather  than  his  judgment  guided  his 
pen."'  The  same  idea  was  also  expressed  by  the  poet 
himself: — "Almost  all  I  have  written  has  been  mere 
passion."^  These  two  statements,  confirming  each  other, 
explain  the  lack  of  poise  and  the  want  of  a  sense  of  propor- 
tion which  are  apparent  in  English  Bards,  as  they  were 
apparent  in  the  Baviad.  Unlike  Dryden,  neither  Gifford 
nor  Pope  allows  his  victims  any  merit ;  each  paints  entirely 
in  sombre  colors,  without  ever  perfecting  a  finished  sketch 
or  alleviating  the  black  picture  with  the  admission  of  a 
single  virtue.  Their  conclusions,  naturally,  are  unpleas- 
antly dogmatic,  founded  as  they  are  on  prejudice  and 
seldom  subjected  to  reason.  Most  satire  is,  of  course, 
biassed  and  unjust,  but  the  careful  craftsman  takes  good 
care  that  his  charges  shall  have  a  semblance  of  plausibility 
and  shall  not  defeat  their  purpose  by  arousing  in  reaction  a 
sympathy  for  the  defendant.^  Satire  written  in  a  rage  is 
likely  to  be  mere  invective,  and  invective,  even  when 
embodied  in  artistic  form,  is  usually  less  effective  than 
deliberate  irony.  Byron  in  his  later  satire  learned  better 
than  to  portray  an  enemy  as  all  fool  or  all  knave. 

Gifford  was,  as  he  sedulously  protested,  fighting  for  a 
principle,  aiming  at  the  extermination  of  certain  forms  of 
affectation  and  false  taste  in  poetry.  There  is  no  groimd 
for  suspecting  his  sincerity,  any  more  than  there  is  for 
questioning  Byron's  motive  in  his  effort  to  defend  the 
classical  standards  against  the  encroachments  of  roman- 

•  Recollections  of  Lord  Byron,  page  31.  I      '  Letters,  iv.,  488. 

3  See  Pope  and  the  Art  of  Satire,  by  G.  K.  Chesterton. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS"  73 

ticism.     It   so  happened  that  Gifford   was  performing  a  \ 
genuine  service  to  letters,  while  Byron  engaged  himself  in  a  ^ 
struggle  at  once  unnecessary  and  hopeless.     In  their  zeal 
and  enthusiasm,  however,  both  satirists  lost  a  feeling  for  ' 
values.     Gifford  delivered  sledge-hammer  blows  at  butter- 
flies;  Byron   classed   together,   without   discernment,   the 
work  of  mediocrity  and  genius,  and  heaped  abuse  indis- 
criminately upon  poetaster  and  poet. 

Gifford's  method,  like  Byron's,  was  descriptive  and  direct, 
and  his  satires  have  little  action.  The  Baviad,  with  its 
dialogue  framework,  is  not  unlike  some  of  Pope's  Epistles, 
while  the  McEviad  is  more  akin  to  English  Bards.  Byron, 
following  Mathias  and  Gifford,  employed  prose  notes  to 
reinforce  his  verse,  but  he  never,  like  Gifford,  padded  them 
with  quotations  from  the  men  whom  he  was  attacking.  In 
both  the  McEviad  and  English  Bards  names  are  printed  in 
ftdl.  Gifford  used  no  type  names,  nor  did  he  succeed  in 
creating  a  type.  In  style  and  diction  Byron  is  Gifford's 
superior.  The  latter  was  often  vulgar  and  inelegant,  and 
his  ear  for  rhythm  and  melody  was  poor.  Byron's  instinc- 
tive good  taste  kept  him  from  blotting  his  pages  with  the 
language  of  the  streets.  His  study  of  Pope,  moreover,  had 
enabled  him  to  acquire  something  of  the  smoothness  as 
well  as  of  the  vigor  of  that  master. 

It  may  be  said  in  general  of  English  Bards  that  it  owes  ] 
most  in  versification  to  Pope,  and  most  in  manner  and/ 
structure  to  Gifford.     There  are,  however,  other  satirists/ 
to  whom  Byron  may  have  been  slightly  indebted.     At  the 
time  when  he  was  pre^paxing  British  Bards,  Francis  Hodgson 
(1781-1852),  his  close  friend,  irritated  by  some  severe  crit- 
icism in  the  Edinburgh  Review  on  his  translation  of  Juvenal 
(1807),  was  planning  his  Gentle  Alterative  prepared  for  the 
Reviewers,  which  appeared  in  Lady  Jane  Grey;  and  other 
Poems  (1809).     The  fact  that  the  provocation  was  the  same 
as  for  English  Bards  and  that  the  two  authors  were  acquain- 


74  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

tances  offers  a  curious  case  of  parallelism  in  literature.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  Byron's  satire,  which  is  much 
longer  than  the  Gentle  Alterative,  is  indebted  to  it  only  in 
minor  respects,  if  at  all.  Both  satires  mention  the  ludicrous 
mistake  of  an  Edinburgh  Review  article  in  attributing  to 
Payne  Knight  some  Greek  passages  really  quoted  from 
Pindar;  but  this  error  had  been  discussed  in  a  long  note  to 
All  the  Talents,  and  was  a  favorite  literary  joke  of  the  period. 
Both  poets,  too,  call  upon  the  master,  Gifford,  to  do  his 
part  in  castigating  the  age.  Beyond  these  superficial 
similarities,  it  may  safely  be  asserted  that  Byron  borrowed 
nothing  from  Hodgson. 

It  is  curious  that  the  striking  simile  of  the  eagle  shot  by 
an  arrow  winged  with  a  feather  from  his  own  plume  used  by 
Moore  in  Corruption^  should  have  been  employed  by  Byron^ 
in  speaking  of  the  tragic  death  of  Henry  Kirke  White 
(1785-1805),  the  religious  poet  and  protege  of  Southey. 
The  simile,  which  has  been  traced  to  Fragment  123  of 
.^schylus,  occurs  also  in  Waller's  To  a  Lady  Singing  a  Song 
of  His  Own  Composing.  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that 
two  poets  in  two  successive  3-ears  should  have  happened 
upon  the  same  figure,  each  working  it  out  so  elabo^atel3^ 
Aside  from  this  one  parallelism,  Moore's  early  satires, 
almost  entirely  political,  would  seem  to  have  had  no  definite 
influence  upon  English  Bards. 

It  has  been  shown,  then,  that  Byron's  ideas  in  his  satire 
were  not  always  entirely  his  own,  and  that  he  reflected, 
in  many  cases,  the  views  and  sometimes  the  phraseology 
of  other  satirists,  notably  Pope,  Churchill,  and  Giflford. 
English  Bards  belongs  to  the  school  of  English  classical 
satire,  and,  as  such,  has  the  peculiarities  and  the  established 
features  common  to  the  different  types  of  that  genre.  In 
the  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  his  poem,  Byron  said: 
"I  can  safely  say  that  I  have  attacked  none  personally,  who 

'  Corruption,  93-98.  '  English  Bards,  841-848. 


"ENGLISH  BARDS,  AND  SCOTCH  REVIEWERS  75 

did  not  commence  on  the  offensive."'  To  accept  this 
literalh'  would  be  to  misinterpret  Byron's  whole  theor}^  of 
satire.  Whether  he  admitted  it  or  not  he  was  a  great  per- 
sonal satirist — in  English  Bards,  primarily  a  personal 
satirist.  Looking  back  at  the  time  when  his  wrath  was 
fiercest,  he  said:  "Like  Ishmael,  my  hand  was  against  all 
men,  and  all  men's  against  me."^  Even  when  satirising 
a  principle  or  a  movement,  he  was  invariably  led  to  attack 
the  individuals  who  represented  it.     Swift's  satiric  code: 

"Malice  never  was  his  aim; 
He  lash'd  the  vice,  but  spar'd  the  name; 
No  individual  could  resent, 
Where  thousands  equally  were  meant," 

was  exactly  contrary  to  Byron's  practice.  He  sought 
alwa^^s  to  contend  with  persons,  to  decide  questions,  not  by 
argument,  but  by  a  hand-to-hand  grapple. 

The  peculiar  features  of  English  Bards  are  to  be  explained 
by  the  author's  character.  He  did  not  let  his  reason  rule. 
From  notes  and  letters  we  learn  that  he  was  often  in  doubt 
whether  to  praise  or  censure  certain  minor  figures:  it  was 
on  the  spur  of  the  moment  that  he  changed  "coxcomb  Gell " 
to  "classic  Gell."  He  was  courageous  and  aggressive,  but 
he  was  also  unfair  and  illogical.  There  is  little  real  humor 
in  English  Bards,  so  little  that  one  is  inclined  to  wonder ' 
where  Jeaffreson  discovered  the  "irresistibly  comic  verse" 
of  which  he  speaks.  When  the  satirist  tries  to  be  playful, 
the  result  is  usually  brutality.  He  has  not  yet  acquired 
the  conversational  railling  mood  which  he  utilized  so 
admirably  in  Beppo. 

In  spite  of  its  crudities,  its  lack  of  restraint,  and  its 
manifest  prejudices,  English  Bards  shows  many  signs  of 
power.     In  the  light  of  the  greater  satire  of  Don  Juan,  it 

'  Poetry,  i.,  291.  ^  Letters,  ii.,  330. 


76  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

seems  immature  and  inartistic,  but  it  surpasses  any  work  of 
a  similar  kind  since  the  death  of  Pope.  It  is  Byron's 
masterpiece  in  classical  satire.  To  excel  it  he  had  to  turn 
for  inspiration  to  another  quarter,  and  to  change  both  his 
method  and  his  style. 


CHAPTER  V 

"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "tHE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA " 

On  July  2,  1809,  Byron,  accompanied  by  his  friend, 
John  Cam  Hobhouse,  sailed  from  Falmouth  for  Lisbon  on 
a  trip  that  was  to  take  him  to  Spain,  Malta,  Greece,  and 
Turkey.  When  he  returned  to  England  in  July,  18 11, 
after  two  years  of  travel  and  adventure,  he  brought  with 
him  "4000  lines  of  one  kind  or  another,"  including  the 
first  two  cantos  of  Childe  Harold  and  two  satires.  Hints  from 
Horace  and  The  Curse  of  Minerva.  Hints  from  Horace, 
written  in  March,  181 1,  during  the  poet's  second  visit  to 
Athens,  is  dated  March  14,  181 1,  on  the  last  page  of  the 
most  authentic  manuscript.  It  was  composed  at  the 
Capuchin  Convent  in  Athens,  where  he  had  met  acciden- 
tally with  a  copy  of  Horace's  epistle  Ad  Pisones,  De  Arte 
Poetica,  commonly  known  as  the  Ars  Poetica. 

The  history  of  the  fortunes  of  this  work  is  perhaps  worth 
relating.  Byron,  on  his  arrival,  handed  it  over  at  once  to 
Dallas,  without  giving  him  a  hint  of  Childe  Harold;  indeed, 
only  the  latter' s  obvious  disappointment  induced  the  poet 
to  show  him  the  Pilgrimage,  which  then  seemed  of  little 
importance  to  its  author.  On  September  4,  181 1,  Byron 
requested  Dallas  to  aid  him  in  correcting  the  proofs  of  Hints 
from  Horace,  and  "in  adapting  the  parallel  passages  of  the 
imitation  in  such  places  to  the  original  as  may  enable  the 
reader  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  allusion."  ^  There  is,  however, 
no  reason  for  thinking  that  Dallas  actually  undertook  the 

'  Letters,  ii.,  24. 

77 


78  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

task,  for  on  October  13th  Byron  complained  to  Hodgson  that 
the  labor  of  editing  was  still  hanging  fire,  and  begged  the 
latter  to  assist  him.  Shortly  after,  owing  partly  to  the 
adverse  criticism  of  Dallas,  and  partly  to  Murray's  wish  not 
to  endanger  the  success  of  Childe  Harold,  the  idea  of  imme- 
diate publication  was  put  aside  for  some  3^ears.  In  1820, 
Byron,  then  resident  in  Italy,  was  reminded  of  his  unprinted 
satire,  and  wrote  Murray  to  inform  him  that  the  manu- 
script had  been  left,  among  various  papers,  w4th  Hobhouse's 
father  in  England.'  At  intervals  he  expressed  anxiety 
about  the  proofs,  which  Murray,  exercising  his  discretion, 
delayed  sending.  From  this  revived  project  Byron  was, 
for  a  time,  dissuaded  by  the  wise  counsel  of  Hobhouse,  who 
suggested  that  the  poem  would  require  much  revision. 
Nevertheless  on  January  11,  1 821,  he  informed  Murray  that 
he  saw  little  to  alter,  ^  and  accused  him  of  having  neglected 
to  comply  with  his  orders.  A  postscript  to  a  letter  of 
February  16,  1821,  indicates  that  he  was  contemplating 
printing  the  Hints  with  its  Latin  original.^  After  March 
4,  1822,  there  is  no  further  allusion  to  the  satire  in  his  cor- 
respondence, and  the  question  of  printing  it  seems  to  have 
been  forgotten.  Although  a  few  selections,  amounting  to 
156  lines,  were  inserted  in  Dallas's  Recollections  (1824),  the 
poem  did  not  appear  complete  until  the  Works  were  pub- 
lished by  Murray  in  1831. 

Hints  from  Horace,  through  a  curious  perversity  of  judg- 
ment, was  always  a  great  favorite  with  Byron,  and  was 
estimated  by  him  as  one  of  his  finest  performances.  His 
mature  opinion  of  it  and  a  possible  cause  for  his  preference 
are  given  in  a  letter  to  Murray,  March  i,  1821 :  "Pray  re- 
quest Mr.  Hobhouse  to  adjust  the  Latin  to  the  English :  the 
imitation  is  so  close  that  I  am  unwilling  to  deprive  it  of  its 
principal  merit — its  closeness.     I  look  upon  it  and  my  Pulci 

'  Letters,  iv.,  425.  ^  Letters,  v.,  221.  ■'  Letters,  v.,  245. 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA  "     79 

as  by  far  the  best  things  of  my  doing." '  On  September  23, 
1820,  when  he  had  published  portions  of  his  masterpiece,  Do7i 
Juan,  he  said,  referring  to  the  period  oi  Hints  from  Horace: 
"I  wrote  better  then  than  now."^  No  intelligent  reader 
will  be  likely  to  agree  with  Byron's  preposterous  verdict  on 
his  own  work,  for  Hints  from  Horace,  although  designed  as 
a  sequel  to  English  Bards,  is  so  much  less  vigorous  and  bril- 
liant that  it  suffers  decidedly  by  a  comparison  with  the 
earlier  satire.  The  poet,  far  from  the  scenes  and  associa- 
tions where  his  rage  had  been  aroused,  has  lost  the  angry 
inspiration  which  raised  English  Bards  above  mere  ranting, 
and  the  white  heat  of  his  passion  has  cooled  with  the  flight 
of  time.  The  praise  which  Byron  bestowed  upon  his  poem 
is  additional  testimony  to  the  often  repeated  assertion  that 
authors  are  incompetent  critics  of  their  own  productions. 

Byron's  boastful  claim  for  the  accuracy  of  Hints  from 
Horace  as  a  version  of  the  Ars  Poetica  may  possibly  lead 
to  some  misconceptions.  Professor  A.  S.  Cook,  in  his  Art 
of  Poetry,  has  pointed  out  some  particular  passages  in  which 
the  English  poet  imitated  his  model,  and  has  proved  that  he 
followed  Horace,  in  places,  with  reasonable  closeness.  But 
Hints  from  Horace  is  far  from  being,  like  Byron's  version 
of  the  first  canto  of  Pulci's  Morgante  Maggiore,  a  mere  trans- 
lation. It  must  be  remembered  that  Byron,  in  his  secon- 
dary title,  defined  the  Hints  in  three  different  ways  in  as 
many  manuscripts,  as  "an  Allusion,"  as  an  "Imitation," 
and  as  a  "Partial  Imitation."  The  fact  seems  to  be  that 
the  work  conforms,  in  general,  to  the  structure  and  argu- 
ment of  the  Ars  Poetica,  in  many  cases  translating  literally 
the  phrasing  of  the  original,  but  altering  and  reorganizing 
the  satire  to  fit  current  conditions. 

The  idea  of  thus  preserving  the  continuity  of  Horace's 
poem,  while  revising  and  readapting  its  text,  was  probably 
first  conceived  by  Oldham  in  his  English  version  of  the  A  rs 

'  Lettc:,  v.,  255.  'Letters,  v.,  77. 


80  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Poetica.  In  his  preface  Oldham  stated  his  design  as  fol- 
lows :  "I  resolved  to  alter  the  scene  from  Rome  to  London, 
and  to  make  Use  of  English  Names  of  Men,  Places,  and 
Customs,  where  the  Parallel  would  decently  permit,  which 
I  conceived  would  give  a  kind  of  New  Air  to  the  Poem,  and 
render  it  more  agreeable  to  the  Relish  of  the  Present  Age." 
Accordingly,  while  keeping  roughly  to  the  text  of  Horace, 
he  introduced  plentiful  references  to  English  poets.  Byron 
also  gives  his  satire  a  modern  setting,  but  in  so  doing,  takes 
more  liberties  than  Oldham.  He  substitutes  Milton  for 
Homer  as  the  classic  example  of  the  epic  poet;  he  makes 
Shakspere  instead  of  iEschylus  the  standard  writer  of 
drama.  He  inserts  many  passages,  such  as  the  remarks  on 
the  Italian  Opera,  on  Methodism,  and  on  the  versification 
of  Hudihras,  which  have  no  counterparts  in  the  Ars  Poetica. 
Oldham  had  refrained  from  satirising  his  contemporaries; 
Byron  improves  ever}  opportunity  for  assailing  his  old 
antagonists.  Allusions  to  "Granta"  and  her  Gothic  Halls, 
to  "Cam's  stream,"  to  Grub-street,  and  to  Parliament 
make  Hints  from  Horace  a  thoroughly  modem  poem.  We 
may  apply  to  it  Warburton's  comment  on  Pope's  Imitations: 
"Whoever  expects  a  paraphrase  of  Horace,  or  a  faithful 
copy  of  his  genius,  or  manner  of  writing  .  .  .  will  be  much 
disappointed."  Byron  restates,  without  much  alteration, 
the  critical  dicta  which  Horace  had  established  as  applicable 
to  poetry  in  all  times  and  countries ;  he  takes  the  plan  of  the 
Ars  Poetica  as  a  rough  guide  for  his  English  adaptation; 
but  he  introduces  so  many  digressions  and  changes  so  many 
names  that  his  satire  is  firmly  stamped  with  his  own 
individuality. 

There  is  no  ground  for  supposing  that  any  one  of  the 
scores  of  translations  and  imitations  of  the  A  rs  Poetica  had 
ever  met  Byron's  eye';  the  nearest  prototypes  in  English 

'  There  have  been  many  actual  translations  of  the  Ars  Poetica  into 
English.     T.    Drant  published,   in   1567,   the  first  complete  version. 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "  THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA  "     8l 

poetry  of  Hints  from  Horace  are  probably  Pope's  Essay 
on  Criticism  and  Epistle  to  Augustus.  Certain  superficial 
resemblances  have  led  critics  to  the  inference  that  Pope's 
Essay  is  accountable  for  much  of  Byron's  Hints.  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  two  authors,  born  just  a  century  apart, 
should  have  attempted  satires  so  similar  in  tone  at  ages 
approximately  the  same.  Pope's  Essay  on  Criticism,  com- 
posed probably  in  1709,  was  printed  in  1711,  a  hundred 
years  before  Byron  wrote  Hints  from  Horace,  In  this 
work  Pope  tried  to  do  for  criticism  what  Horace  had  done 
for  poetry :  that  is,  to  codify  and  express  in  compact  form 
some  generally  accepted  principles  of  the  art.  Pope,  how- 
ever, saw  fit  to  introduce  incidentally  some  conventional 
precepts  concerning  the  subject-matter  of  literary  criticism, 
borrowing  them  from  Horace,  and  Horace's  French  imitator, 
Boileau.  Thus  in  Pope's  Essay  are  to  be  found  many  of 
the  maxims  which  Byron  transferred  into  Hints  from  Horace 
from  the  Latin  source.  The  correspondence  between  such 
passages  in  the  Essay  and  their  counterparts  in  Hints  from 
Horace  has  led  Weiser  to  conclude,  from  a  study  of  parallel 
ideas,  that  Byron's  poem  is  based,  to  a  large  extent,  on 
Pope's  work.^  His  thesis,  however,  has  been  all  but  con- 
clusively refuted  by  Levy,  who  shows  that  in  the  nine 
instances  of  parallelism  adduced  by  Weiser  as  evidence,  the 

Queen  Elizabeth  left  a  fragmentary  version  of  194  lines  in  her  English - 
ings  (1598).  Ben  Jonson's  excellent  Horace,  of  the  Art  of  Poetry  was 
printed  after  his  death.  Of  other  translations,  from  that  of  Roscommon 
(1680)  in  blank  verse,  to  that  of  Howes  (1809)  in  heroic  couplets,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  speak,  except  to  say  that  they  mount  into  the  hundreds. 
In  such  works  as  The  Art  of  Preaching  by  Christopher  Pitt  (i 699-1 748) 
and  The  Art  of  Politicks  (1731)  by  James  Bramston  (1694-1744)  the  title 
and  method  of  Horace  had  been  transferred  to  other  fields.  Harlequin- 
Horace;  or  the  Art  of  Modern  Poetry  by  James  Miller  (i 706-1 744)  is  an 
ironical  parody  of  the  Ars  Poetica. 

'  See  his  treatise,  Ueber  das  Verhaltnis  von  Byrons  Hints  from  Horace  zu 
Horaz  und  Pope. 


82  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

lines  quoted  from  Hints  from  Horace  are  really  much  closer 
to  lines  from  the  Ars  Poetica  than  they  are  to  the  citations 
from  the  Essay  on  Criticism.  ^  Undoubtedly  there  are  coup- 
lets in  the  Hints  that  recall  the  Essay;  but  in  view  of  Byron's 
specific  statement  of  his  obligation  to  Horace,  it  woiild  be 
rash  to  assume  that  Pope's  influence  was  more  than  a 
general  one,  the  natural  result  of  Byron's  careful  study  of 
his  style  and  manner.  Pope's  Epistle  to  Augustus,  a  para- 
phrase of  Horace's  Book  U,  Epistle  i,  is,  in  several  respects, 
not  unlike  Hints  from  Horace.  It  pursues  the  same  method 
in  substituting  English  names  for  Greek  and  Roman  ones, 
and  in  replacing  classical  references  by  allusions  to  contem- 
porary life.  Moreover  the  Epistle,  with  its  judgment  on 
English  writers,  its  criticism  of  the  drama,  and  its  estimate 
of  the  age,  is  structurally  more  akin  to  Hints  from  Horace 
than  is  ordinarily  supposed. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  attempt  to  add  anything  to 
Professor  Cook's  work  in  outlining  the  instances  in  which 
Byron  merely  translated  Horace.  A  single  illustration 
will  suffice  to  show  how  the  same  Latin  lines  were  treated  by 
Pope,  and,  later,  by  Byron.     Horace's  counsel : — 

' '  Vos  exemplaria  Graeca 
Nocturna  versate  manu,  versate  diuma"^ 

is  paraphrased  roughly  in  the  Essay  on  Criticism  as, 

"Be  Homer's  works  your  study  and  delight. 
Read  them  by  day  and  meditate  by  night."-* 

In  this  case  Byron's  version, 

"Ye  who  seek  finished  models,  never  cease 
By  day  and  night  to  read  the  works  of  Greece,"^ 

is  slightly  more  literal. 

'  See  his  article  in  Anglia,  ii.,  256.  ^  Ars  Poetica,  269-270. 

3  Essay  on  Criticism,  124-125.  *  Hints  from  Horace,  423-424, 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA  "     83 

Horace's  treatise,  technically  an  epistle,  suffers  from  a 
want  of  coherence.  In  plan  it  is  merely  a  group  of  maxims, 
with  illustrations  and  amyjlifications.  Hints  from  Horace 
is  even  more  muddled  and  formless.  It  is  like  a  collection 
of  detached  thoughts  in  verse,  with  each  single  observation 
jotted  down  almost  at  haphazard  without  regard  to  what 
comes  before  or  after.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
whole  sections  of  the  satire  might  be  lifted  bodily  from  one 
page  to  another  without  perceptibly  affecting  the  continu- 
ity of  thought.  This  defect,  obscured  in  Horace  and  Pope 
by  the  epigrammatic  brilliancy  of  separate  phrases  and  the 
lift  of  "winged  words,"  has,  in  Byron's  poem,  few  counter- 
balancing virtues.  Hints  from  Horace  lacks  the  finished 
perfection  of  style  which  distinguishes  the  Ars  Poetica  and 
the  Epistle  to  Augustus.  Its  versification  is,  except  in  iso- 
lated lines,  feeble  and  careless,  far  inferior  to  that  of  English 
Bards,  and  even  sinking  at  times,  as  in  the  passage  on  Hudi- 
bras,^  into  bare  prosing.  One  finds  in  the  poem  con- 
firmation of  Byron's  confession  to  Lord  Holland  in  1812: 
— "Latterly,  I  can  weave  a  nine-line  stanza  faster  than  a 
couplet,  for  which  measure  I  have  not  the  cunning."^ 
If  the  dates  furnished  by  the  poet  are  correct,  722  lines,  at 
least,  of  the  satire  must  have  been  composed  in  two  weeks, 
a  speed  which  may  explain  some  of  the  defects  in  execution. 
Certainly,  even  with  due  allowance  for  Byron's  strange 
fondness,  it  must  be  considered  one  of  his  poorest  works 
in  structure,  diction,  and  versification. 

Nor  can  it,  vievv'ed  merely  as  a  medium  for  satire,  claim  a 
high  rank.  It  is  too  obviously  didactic  in  its  purpose  and 
too  general  in  its  attacks.  It  does  not  even  possess  the 
special  interest  which  attaches  to  English  Bards  because 
of  the  references  to  contemporary  and  famous  writers  in 
the  latter  work.  Only  a  few  lines  are  devoted  to  personal 
satire,  and  these  seldom  do  more  than  repeat  or  amplify  the 

^  Hints  from  Horace,  399-412.  ^Letters,  ii.,  150. 


84  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

criticism  embodied  in  the  earlier  poem.  The  result  is  that 
Hints  from  Horace,  taken  as  a  satire  only,  is  open  to  a  charge 
of  futility,  in  that  its  motive  is  not  definite  and  its  satire  is 
too  scattered.  It  cannot  go  straight  to  the  mark,  because 
it  is  aiming  at  no  particular  target. 

As  in  English  Bards,  a  large  proportion  of  the  satire  is 
placed  in  prose  notes.  The  longest  passage  of  satire  in 
verse  is  that  directed  at  Jeffrey.     The  lines : — 

"On  shores  of  Euxine  or  ^gean  sea, 
My  hate,  untra veiled,  fondly  turned  to  thee," 

show  that  Byron's  rage  at  that  critic  was  still  smouldering. 
Repeating  the  bombastic  challenge  uttered  in  the  post- 
script to  the  second  edition  of  English  Bards,  the  satirist 
taunts  Jeffrey  with  disinclination  or  inability  to  reply  to 
the  assault  made  upon  him.  It  is  probable  that  the  Scotch- 
man never  saw  this  passage  in  Hints  from  Horace;  at  any 
rate  he  did  not  deign  to  answer  Byron's  abuse,  and  main- 
tained a  discreet  silence  during  the  period  of  the  latter' s 
anger. 

The  lines  on  Southey  reiterate  in  a  commonplace  fashion 
what  Byron  had  said  before  on  the  same  subject,  a  long 
prose  note  dwelling  on  the  heaviness  of  Southey's  epics, 
particularly  of  The  Curse  of  Kehama  (1810),  which  had 
recently  appeared.  Another  elaborate  note  is  aimed  at 
the  "cobbler-laureates,"  Bloomfield  and  Blackett,  whom 
Byron  still  mentions  with  contempt.  Scott  and  Bowles 
receive  some  passing  uncomplimentary  remarks ;  Fitzgerald 
is  referred  to  once  as  "  Fitz-scribble " ;  Wordsworth  is 
barely  alluded  to,  and  Coleridge  is  not  spoken  of  at  all. 
The  review  of  the  drama  is  uninteresting  and  dull.  Byron 
persists  in  his  condemnation  of  the  Opera  on  the  ground  of  its 
immoralit3%  although,  somewhat  inconsistently,  he  defends 
plays  against  the  prudish  censure  of  "Methodistic  men." 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA "     85 

An  occasional  line  suggests  a  similar  passage  from  other 
English  satirists.     Thus  Byron's  couplet, 

"Satiric  rhyme  first  sprang  from  selfish  spleen. 
You  doubt — see  Dryden,  Pope,  St.  Patrick's  Dean," 

recalls  the  words  of  Cowper, 

"But  (I  might  instance  in  St.  Patrick's  Dean) 
Too  often  rails  to  gratify  his  spleen."^ 

The  reference  to  Pitt's  skill  in  coining  words  may  have  been 
remembered  from  many  jests  on  the  subject  in  the  Rolliad 
and  the  Works  of  Peter  Pindar.  The  scorn  of  "French  flip- 
pancy and  German  sentiment"  re-echoes  the  violent  oppo- 
sition of  the  Anti- Jacobin  to  the  spread  of  foreign  ideas.  A 
note  on  "the  millennium  of  the  black  letter"^  calls  to  mind 
the  hatred  of  Mathias  for  antiquaries  and  searchers  for  old 
manuscripts^  and  another  note''  reinforces  Gifford  in  abus- 
ing T.  Vaughan,  Esq.,  the  "last  of  the  Cruscanti." 

The  single  striking  feature  of  Hints  from  Horace  is  its 
summary  of  "  Life's  little  tale,"  based  upon  a  corresponding 
passage  in  theArs  Poeiica,  in  which  Byron  describes  graphi- 
cally the  career  of  a  young  nobleman  under  the  Georges, 
from  his  "simple  childhood's  dawning  days"  to  the  time 
when  "Age  palsies  every  limb,"  and  he  sinks  into  his  grave 
"crazed,  querulous,  forsaken,  half-forgot."  Despite  some 
obvious  exaggerations  and  some  traces  of  affected  pessimism, 
the  poet  was  undoubtedly  drawing  largely  upon  his  own 
experience.  The  tone  of  the  lines  is  bitter,  unrelieved  by 
sympathy  or  humor,  paralleled  in  Byron's  work  only  in  the 
Inscription  on  the  Monument  of  a  Newfoundland  Dog. 

The  Curse  of  Minerva,  composed  at  approximately  the 
same  time  as  Hints  from  Horace, — it  is  dated  from  the  Capu- 

'  Charily,  420-500.  "  Poetry,  i.,  396. 

3  Pursuits  of  Literature,  page  93.  ■»  Poetry,  i.,  444. 


86  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

chin  Convent  at  Athens,  March  17,  181 1 — was  actually 
printed  in  1812,  but  not  for  public  circulation.  The  first 
edition,  probably  unauthorized,  was  brought  out  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1 815.  Meanwhile  the  54  introductory  lines, 
beginning : — 

"Slow  sinks,  more  lovely  ere  his  race  be  run. 
Along  Morea's  hills  the  setting  sun," 

had  appeared  in  Canto  III  of  the  Corsair  (1814).  A  frag- 
mentary version  of  iii  lines,  entitled  The  Malediction  of 
Minerva,  or  the  Athenian  Marble-Market,  signed  "Steropes" 
and  published  in  the  New  Monthly  Magazine  for  April,  18 15, 
was  disowned  by  Byron  as  a  "miserable  and  villanous 
copy."^  The  stanzas  on  Lord  Elgin  in  Childe  Harold^  had 
already  expressed  Byron's  condemnation  of  the  conduct  of 
that  nobleman,  and  the  poet  doubtless  believed  that  nothing 
was  to  be  gained  by  again  airing  his  indignation.  Possibly, 
too,  as  Moore  suggests,  ^  a  remonstrance  from  Lord  Elgin  or 
some  of  his  relatives  may  have  been  an  inducement  to  sacri- 
fice a  work  which  coiild  add  little  to  his  reputation. 

The  Curse,  unlike  Hints  from  Horace,  has  the  advantage 
of  a  definite  and  undivided  aim.  It  is  an  exposure  and 
denunciation  of  Lord  Elgin,  who,  appointed  in  1799  to  the 
embassy  from  England  at  the  Porte,  had  interested  himself 
in  the  remains  of  Greek  architecture  and  sctdpture  on  the 
Acropolis  and  had  secured  the  services  of  the  Neapolitan 
painter,  Lusieri,  to  sketch  the  ruins.  In  1801  he  obtained 
a  firman  from  the  Sultan  allowing  him  to  carry  away  "an}'- 
pieces  of  stone  with  old  inscriptions  or  figures  thereon," 
and  accepting  this  as  a  guaranty  against  molestation  in  his 
project,  he  at  once  proceeded,  at  his  own  expense,  to  dis- 
mantle the  Parthenon  and  to  ship  the  finest  specimens  to 

'  Letters,  iii.,  271.  *  Childe  Harold,  II.,  10-15. 

3  Life  of  Byron,  ii.,  145. 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA  "     87 

England.  Although  he  left  Turkey  in  1803,  the  work  con- 
tinued through  his  agents  until  18 12.  His  collection,  the 
cost  of  accumulating  which  was  estimated  at  74,000  pounds, 
was  purchased  by  the  nation  for  35,000  pounds  in  18 16,  and 
now  forms  part  of  the  so-called  "Elgin  Marbles"  in  the 
British  Museum. 

Although  opinions  as  to  the  propriety  of  Elgin's  actions 
differed  widely  at  the  time,  it  is  now  fairly  well  established 
that  his  foresight  prevented  the  ultimate  destruction  of  the 
statuary  by  war  and  the  elements.  Byron's  conclusions, 
formed  on  the  spot  where  the  operations  were  being  carried 
on,  have,  however,  some  justification.  He  felt  that  it  was 
the  degradation  of  Greece  at  the  hands  of  a  foreign  despoiler, 
and  he  resented  the  intrusion  as  interference  in  the  affairs 
of  a  helpless  people.  In  English  Bards  he  had  mentioned 
Elgin,  along  with  Aberdeen,  as  fond  of  "misshaped  monu- 
ments and  maimed  antiques,"  and  had  ridiculed  him  for 
making  his  house  a  mart, 

"For  all  the  mutilated  works  of  art." 

When  later  he  saw  the  havoc  that  had  been  caused  at  Athens, 
his  mood  changed  from  raillery  to  seriousness,  and  he  burst 
out  with  fury  at  the  man  whom  he  considered  a  wanton 
plunderer  and  at  the  nation  which  could  tolerate  his  depre- 
dations. Under  this  stimulus  he  wrote  the  stanzas  on 
Elgin  in  Childe  Harold,  but  his  rage  found  a  better  outlet 
in  The  Curse  of  Minerva.  This  satire  contains  only  312 
lines,  but  it  goes  straight  to  its  goal,  with  a  directness  and 
a  concentration  which  distinguish  it  above  any  of  the  other 
early  satires,  even  above  English  Bards,  superior  as  that 
poem  is  to  it  in  more  important  respects. 

The  satire  has  a  narrative  basis,  with  a  plot  which  is 
simple  and  unified.  The  beautiful  opening  description  of 
an  evening  at  Athens  precedes,  and  accentuates  by  contrast, 


88  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

the  ensuing  indictment  by  Minerva  of  Elgin,  the  desecrator 
of  all  this  loveliness.  The  poet's  reply  to  the  accusing  god- 
dess disclaims  any  responsibility  for  the  vandalism  on 
England's  part,  and  lays  the  blame  on  Scotland,  Elgin's 
fatherland.  Minerva's  answering  curse  and  prophecy 
extend  the  scope  of  the  satire  beyond  mere  personal  malice, 
and  give  it  a  broad  application  to  England's  policy  as 
oppressor  and  devastator.  Her  speech  ends  somewhat 
abruptly,  and  the  poem  closes, 
p-  Although  Byron  was,  by  his  own  admission,  "half  a  Scot 
j  by  birth,  and  bred  a  whole  one,"^  he  joined,  in  The  Curse  of 
Minerva,  the  long  line  of  satirists  from  the  authors  of 
Eastward  Ho!  to  Cleveland  with  his  grim  couplet, 

"Had  Cain  been  Scot,  God  would  have  changed  his  doom; 
Not  forced  him  wander  but  confined  him  home," 

and  to  Dr.  Johnson,  who  have  jeered  at  the  Scotch  and 
Scotland.  Byron's  antipathy  for  his  early  home  evidently 
developed  from  his  quarrel  with  the  Scotch  reviewers. 
English  Bards  had  contained  scattered  references  to  "  North- 
em  wolves"  and  to  the  "oat-fed  phalanx "  of  the  critic  clan, 
and  had  alluded  scornfully  to  the  children  of  Dun-edin 
who  "write  for  food — and  feed  because  they  write."  In 
The  Curse  oj  Minerva,  a  new  occasion  for  dislike  having 
arisen,  the  attack  on  the  Scotch  is  more  vicious  and  intol- 
erant. Many  passages  have  their  coimterparts  in  portions 
of  Churchill's  Prophecy  of  Famine  (1763),  a  pastoral  in  the 
form  of  a  dialogue,  with  the  motto, "  Nos  patriam  fugimus, " 
ingeniously  applied  to  the  Scotch  in  the  translation,"  We  all 
get  out  of  our  country  as  fast  as  we  can."  Churchill,  who, 
it  will  be  remembered,  hated  the  Scotch  critic,  Smollett,  as 
ferociously  as  Byron  hated  Jeffrey,  had  been  aroused  also 
by  the  growing  influence  of  Bute  and  other  Scotchmen  at 

'  Don  Juan,  x.  ,  17. 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "  THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA  "     89 

the  court  of  George  III,  and  his  poem,  accordingly,  became 

a  severe  political  invective,  interspersed  with  vilification  of 

the  Scotch  climate  and  the  Scotch  people.     It  is  interesting 

to  compare  Churchill's  description  of  the  barrenness  and 

dampness  of  Scotland  with  Byron's  picture  of  that  country 

as  "a  land  of  meanness,  sophistry,  and  mist."     The  former 

poet  calls  Scotchmen  "Nature's  bastards";  Byron  refers  ^ 

to  Scotland  as  "that  bastard  land."     Both  writers  have 

caustic  lines  on  the  shrewdness,  importunity,  and  avarice 

of  the  Scotch  people,  wherever  they  settle.     Although  the 

similarities  between  the  satires  warrant  no  deduction,  there 

is  a  possibility  that  Byron,  who  undoubtedly  had  read  the 

Prophecy  of  Famine,  may  have  recollected  certain  passages 

in  a  poem  the  spirit  of  which  is  very  like  his  own.  ^ 

Basing  his  argument  chiefly  on  the  fact  that  a  couplet  of 
Pope^  is  parodied  in  Byron's  lines, 

"'Blest  paper-credit!'  who  shall  dare  to  sing? 
It  clogs  like  lead  Corruption's  weary  wing," 

Weiser  has  endeavored  to  prove  that  Byron  borrowed  some- 
thing from  Pope's  Epistle  to  Lord  Bathurst.  A  verbal 
comparison  of  the  two  passages  in  question  fails  to  bring 
out  any  striking  resemblance.  Pope  continues  with  a 
comment  on  the  ease  with  which  paper  money  may  be  used 
in  bribery;  Byron,  after  quoting  Pope,  does  not  touch  on  this 
point,  and  his  lines  seem  to  be  merely  a  passing  quotation, 
not  closely  connected  with  what  comes  before  or  after.  In 
no  other  place  in  The  Curse  of  Minerva  are  there  phrases 
which  have  even  a  remote  likeness  to  the  language  of  Pope's 
Epistle.     On  such  grounds  as  Weiser  advances  it  might  be 

'  Churchill's  poem  ends  with  a  prophecy  from  the  Goddess  of  Famine 
just  as  Byron's  ends  with  Minerva's  curse. 

^  "Blest  paper-credit!  last  and  best  supply! 
That  lends  Corruption  lighter  wings  to  fly!" 

(Epistle  to  Lord  Bathurst,  On  the  Use  of  Riches,  40-41 .) 


90  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

shown  that  Byron,  in  Beppo,  is  imitating  Cowper,  because 
he  quotes  a  line  from  that  poet. 

Byron's  attack  on  Lord  Elgin  in  Cfiilde  Harold  had  been 
animated  by  a  love  for  Greece  and  a  pity  for  her  forlorn 
state  among  the  nations,  as  well  as  by  resentment  of  Eng- 
land's cold-blooded  attitude  in  allowing  such  depredations. 
In  the  passage  Byron  had  covered  Elgin  with  abuse: — 

"Cold  as  the  crags  upon  his  native  coast, 
His  mind  as  barren  and  his  head  as  hard. 
Is  he  whose  head  conceived,  whose  hand  prepared. 
Aught  to  displace  Athena's  poor  remains."^ 

These  lines  were  published  in  March,  1812.  In  1813,  James 
and  Horace  Smith,  famous  through  their  Rejected  Addresses, 
appeared  again  as  authors  in  Horace  in  London,  a  series  of 
imitations  of  the  first  two  books  of  the  Odes  of  Horace.  In 
this  volume,  Ode  XV,  The  Parthenon,  modelled  fairly  closely 
in  plot  on  Horace's  Prophecy  of  Nereus,  treats  of  the  contro- 
versy concerning  Elgin.  A  clear  reference  to  Byron  in  the 
poem  makes  it  certain  that  the  Smiths  had  read  Childe 
Harold  and  that  they  concurred  with  his  expressed  disap- 
proval of  Elgin's  conduct. 

The  Parthenofi,  owing  perhaps  to  mere  coincidence,  per- 
haps to  the  possibility  that  the  Smiths  may  have  had  access 
to  The  Curse  of  Minerva  in  manuscript,  is  in  its  outlines  and 
especially  in  the  general  features  of  Minerva's  curse,  singu- 
larly like  B^Ton's  satire.  The  Smiths,  following  Horace, 
describe  Elgin's  ship  as  hastening  homeward,  laden  with 
the  "guilty  prize."  Suddenly  Minerva  rises,  like  Nereus, 
from  the  sea  and,  with  the  language  of  a  prophet,  pro- 
nounces a  curse  on  the  destroyer,  predicting  that  Elgin  will 
suffer  misfortunes  and  go  down  through  the  ages  remem- 
bered for  his  shamelessness.  The  poem,  like  Byron's,  closes 
with  Minerva  speaking.     Certain  lines  in  The  Parthenon: — 

•  Childe  Harold,  II.,  12, 


"hints  from  HORACE"  AND  "THE  CURSE  OF  MINERVA  "    9I 

"Goth,  Vandal,  Moslem,  had  their  flags  unfurl'd 
Around  m\'  still  unviolated  fane, 
Two  thousand  summers  had  with  dews  impearl'd 
Its  marble  heights  nor  left  a  mouldering  stain; 
'T  was  thine  to  ruin  all  that  all  had  spared  in  vain,"' 

epitomize  a  longer  passage  in  The  Curse  of  Minerva.^  In 
Childe  Harold  Byron  had  made  no  mention  of  the  fact  that 
Elgin's  marriage  had  been  dissolved  by  act  of  Parliament 
in  18 18,  but  in  The  Curse  of  Minerva  he  made  the  goddess 
allude  to  the  domestic  scandal.  A  similar  passage  is  intro- 
duced into  Minerva's  prophecy  in  The  Parthenon.  These 
resemblances  in  structure  and  sometimes  in  phrasing  may, 
of  course,  have  occurred  independentl3^  or  may  have  arisen 
from  the  chance  that  Byron,  as  well  as  the  Smiths,  was 
thinking  of  Horace's  Ode.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a 
possibility  that  the  Smiths,  already  familiar  with  the  lines 
on  Elgin  in  Childe  Harold,  may  have  read  The  Curse  of 
Minerva  in  manuscript  and  have  unconsciously  reproduced 
some  of  its  features  in  their  poem. 

By  a  natural  transition  Minerva,  in  Byron's  satire,  leaves 
Elgin  and  turns  to  England  in  the  words, 

"Hers  were  the  deeds  that  taught  her  lawless  son 
To  do  what  oft  Britannia's  self  had  done." 

This  introduces  a  survey  of  England's  foreign  affairs, 
designed  to  expose  that  country's  despotic  policy  towards 
her  weaker  rivals  and  dependents.  The  goddess  treats 
briefly  of  England's  treachery  to  Denmark  in  the  battle  of 
Copenhagen,  of  the  recent  uprisings  of  the  natives  in  India, 
and  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  Peninsular  War  in  Spain  and 
Portugal,   and  finally,    touching  upon   domestic  matters, 

'  The  Parthenon,  stanza  3.  -  The  Curse  of  Minerva,  95-116. 


92  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

uncovers  the  distress  and  misery  of  the  laboring  classes  in 
England  and  the  inefficiency  of  the  government  in  dealing 
with  internal  problems.  She  ends  with  a  picture  of  the 
Furies  waving  their  kindled  brands  above  the  distracted 
realm,  while  ascending  fires  shake  their  "red  shadow  o'er 
the  startled  Thames."  Such  a  fate,  says  Minerva,  and 
Byron  with  her,  is  deserved  by  a  nation  which  had  lit  pyres 
"from  Tagus  to  the  Rhine." 

This  passage,  commonplace  enough  in  its  style,  is  signi- 
ficant in  that  it  shows  Byron  almost  for  the  first  time  taking 
a  keen  and  active  interest  in  politics,  and  posing  as  an 
adverse  critic  of  England's  foreign  policy.  It  was  easy  for 
the  man  who  could  condemn  England's  conduct  towards 
Denmark  and  India  to  develop  into  an  outspoken  radical. 

In  neglecting  and  partly  disowning  The  Curse  of  Minerva, 
Byron  was  probably  acting  with  good  judgment.  It  is 
assuredly  unworthy  of  the  author  of  Childe  Harold.  Only 
the  opening  passage  is  notable  for  its  genuine  poetry,  and 
the  satire,  except  in  structure,  is  inferior  to  English  Bards. 
It  is  equally  true,  however,  that  it  is  superior  in  most  re- 
spects to  Hints  from  Horace  and  The  Waltz.  The  Curse  of 
Minerva,  with  its  narrative  basis,  is  a  variation  from  the 
other  early  classical  satires ;  but  it  has  the  same  elaborate 
machinery  of  notes,  the  same  method  of  direct  attack — 
although  in  this  instance  it  is  conveyed  through  the  mouth 
of  a  third  character — and  the  same  extravagance  and 
bitterness  of  tone.  In  managing  the  heroic  couplet,  Byron 
never  surpassed  his  skill  in  English  Bards.  After  1811  his 
acquired  ability  to  handle  other  measures  withdrew  his 
attention  from  the  metre  of  Pope,  with  the  result  that  his 
versification  in  the  ensuing  classical  satires  shows  signs  of 
deterioration  and  weakness.  It  is  to  this  period  of  decline 
that  Hints  from  Horace  and  The  Curse  of  Minerva  belong. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


During  the  seven  years  between  the  completion  of  The 
Curse  of  Minerva  and  the  publication  of  Beppo,  Byron's 
contributions  to  satire  were,  on  the  whole,  sporadic,  ephem- 
eral, and  unworthy  of  his  genius.  He  composed  in  this 
period  only  one  long  formal  satire.  The  Waltz,  and  that 
appeared  anonymously,  to  be  disowned  by  its  author.  The 
remaining  satiric  product  may  be  divided  into  three  groups : 
political  epigrams  and  squibs,  like  Windsor  Poetics,  many 
of  them  printed  in  the  newspapers,  others  sent  in  letters  to 
friends;  jocular  and  fragmentary  7ez^:!c  d' esprit,  often,  like 
The  Devil's  Drive,  semi-political;  and  ironical  and  invective 
verses  dealing  with  his  domestic  troubles,  illustrated  by 
A  Sketch.  Nearly  all  are  timely  impromptus,  to  few  of 
which  he  gave  careful  revision.  The  period  is  plainly 
transitional,  for  it  marks  the  gradual  change  in  Byron's 
satiric  method  from  the  formal  vituperation  of  English 
Bards  to  the  colloquial  raillery  of  Beppo.  Little  by  little  he 
forsakes  the  heroic  couplet  for  other  measures;  more  and 
more  he  diverges  in  practice  from  the  principles  of  his 
masters.  Pope  and  GifiEord.  As  he  grows  more  experienced 
and  more  mature,  he  tends  to  employ  mockery  as  well  as 
abuse,  and  in  this  development  is  to  be  seen  an  approach  to 
the  manner  and  spirit  of  Don  Juan. 

The  causes  for  the  comparative  unproductivity  in  satire 
of  this  period  in  Byron's  life  are  by  no  means  difficult  to 
discover.     The  years  which  followed  his  return  from  abroad 

93 


94  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

saw  his  dramatic  entrance  into  London  society,  his  associa- 
tion with  leaders  in  politics  and  literature,  his  engagement 
to  Miss  Alilbanke  and  eventual  marriage  to  her  on  January 
2,  1815,  and  his  separation  from  her  in  18 16.  Before  18 12 
he  had  been  a  somewhat  isolated  author;  now  he  was  a 
prominent  and  much  discussed  personage,  busy  with  duties 
and  engagements.  It  is  true  that  even  in  the  midst  of 
these  exciting  days  he  did  not  cease  writing;  but  his  interest 
had  been  turned  to  the  verse  romance,  popularized  in 
England  by  Scott,  and  his  literary  work  resulted  in  The 
Giaour  and  the  narrative  poems  which  followed  it  in 
rapid  succession.  Engaged  in  so  many  pleasurable  pur- 
suits, the  poet  had  small  inclination  for  sustained  effort,  and 
contented  himself  with  pouring  forth,  with  astonishing 
facility  and  fluency,  these  melodramatic  Eastern  tales. 
Possibly,  too,  his  circumstances  were  so  fortunate  up  to  18 16 
that  he  did  not  resort  instinctively,  as  he  did  later,  to  satire 
as  a  means  of  voicing  his  dissatisfaction  with  men  and  things. 
It  was  not  until  he  had  been  driven  from  his  native  land  by 
the  condemnation  of  his  countrymen  that  his  satiric  spirit 
became  again  a  dominant  mood. 

To  comprehend  the  development  of  Byron's  political 
views,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  the  conditions  under 
which  he  formed  them.  After  two  previous  attacks  of 
insanity,  George  III  became  permanently  demented  in  18 10, 
and  the  Regency  Bill,  making  Prince  George  actual  ruler 
of  the  nation,  was  passed  on  February  5,  18 10.  His  well- 
known  vicious  propensities  and  illicit  amours  had  made 
him  unpopular,  and  when,  on  February  23,  18 12,  he  first 
appeared  in  public  as  sovereign,  he  was  coldly  received. 
It  had  been  generally  supposed  that  with  the  power  in  his 
hands,  he  would  reward  the  Whigs  who  had  stood  by  him 
so  faithfully  through  his  many  difficulties,  but  after  vain 
efforts  to  organize  a  coalition  ministry,  he  appointed  Lord 
Liverpool  as  Prime  Minister  on  June  9,  18 12,  and  the  Tories 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  95 

retained  complete  control  over  affairs  of  state.  This  action, 
equivalent  to  treachery,  made  the  Regent  a  target  for  Whig 
abuse,  and  that  party  never  ceased  reviling  the  ruler  who 
had  been  disloyal  to  their  cause. 

Byron  at  Cambridge  had  rather  lukewarmly  supported 
Whig  doctrines,  and  when  he  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  he  selected  one  of  the  neutral  benches.  Undoubtedly 
the  attack  upon  him  by  the  Whig  Edinburgh  Review  inclined 
him  to  look  askance  on  the  party  of  which  he  was  tempera- 
mentally a  member ;  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  in  Eng- 
lish Bards  he  had  assailed  Lord  Holland  and  other  prominent 
Whigs.  Once  in  London,  how^ever,  he  allied  himself  with 
the  opposition,  and  soon  became  a  regular  visitor  at  Hol- 
land House.  His  three  speeches  in  Parliament  were  in 
advocacy  of  liberal  measures,  the  first,  on  February  2^, 
1812,  being  delivered  in  resistance  to  a  bill  instituting  special 
penalties  against  the  frame-breakers  of  Nottingham,  and 
the  second  being  a  plea  for  Catholic  emancipation.  Scott's 
suggestion  that  Byron's  liberalism  was  due  "to  the  pleasure 
it  afforded  him  as  a  vehicle  of  displaying  his  wit  and  satire 
against  individuals  in  office"  is  not  needed  to  explain  the 
latter's  preference  for  Whig  policies,  for  the  poet  would  have 
joined  himself  inevitably  to  the  more  progressive  and  more 
radical  party.  Although  his  political  beliefs  at  this  time 
were  somewhat  vague  and  occasionally  inconsistent,  he  was 
by  nature  an  individualist  and  an  opponent  of  conserva- 
tism. His  espousal  of  liberal  views  may,  however,  have 
been  assisted  by  his  intimacy  with  Moore,  Leigh  Hunt,  and 
other  radical  writers. 

In  reply  to  Byron's  attack  on  him  in  English  Bards, 
Moore  had  sent  the  satirist  a  letter  on  January  i,  18 10, 
preparatory  to  a  challenge  unless  reparation  were  offered. 
Fortunately  the  note  did  not  reach  Byron  until  his  landing 
in  England,  when  the  Irishman's  wrath  had  cooled  and  he 
himself  was  in  a  repentant  mood.     A  short  correspondence 


96  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

led  to  the  meeting  of  the  two,  with  Campbell  and  Rogers,  at 
the  house  of  the  latter  in  November,  1811,  where  the  differ- 
ence was  amicably  adjusted.  On  December  nth  Byron 
invited  Moore  to  visit  him  at  Newstead,  and  though  Moore 
found  it  impossible  to  accept,  the  poets  soon  became  good 
friends.  ^  It  was  not  until  the  formation  of  this  friendship 
that  Byron  began  to  take  any  active  part  in  current  politics; 
during  the  rest  of  his  life,  however,  he  was  linked  with  Moore 
as  a  satirist  on  the  Whig  side  and  was,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  influenced  by  the  latter's  work.^ 

As  we  have  seen,  Moore  had  failed  in  his  attempts  at 
formal  satire;  but  in  18 12,  shortl}^  after  his  acquaintance 
with  Byron  began,  he  commenced  his  persistent  and  stinging 
gibes  at  the  Regent  and  his  coterie.  On  Februar}^  13,  18 12, 
the  Prince  sent  his  notorious  letter  to  the  Duke  of  York, 
asking  for  Whig  support,  and  Moore's  admirable  verse 
parody  was  soon  in  private  circulation.  This  was  one  of  the 
earliest,  and  certainly  one  of  the  most  delightful,  of  the 
many  brilliant  satires  with  which  Moore,  for  years,  amused 
the  town .  In  March,  1 8 1 3 ,  under  the  pen-name  of  ' '  Thomas 
Brown,  the  Younger,"  he  published  Intercepted  Letters;  or  the 
Two-penny  Posthag,  in  which  he  borrowed  the  structure  of 
the  anonymous  Groans  of  the  Talents  by  pretending  to  have 
discovered  a  number  of  letters  from  various  celebrated 
personages.  Moore's  letters,  eight  in  all,  are  in  rapid  ana- 
pestic  and  octosj'Uabic  metres,  and  are  unusually  bright 
and  piquant,  full  of  allusions  to  the  scandalous  gossip  of 

'  Byron  expressed  his  esteem  for  his  new  friend  in  his  Journal,  De- 
cember 10, 1 8 13: — "  I  have  just  had  the  kindest  letter  from  Moore.  I  do 
think  that  man  is  the  best-hearted,  the  only  hearted  being  I  ever  encoun- 
tered; and  then,  his  talents  are  equal  to  his  feeUngs"  {Letters,  ii.,  371). 

'  See  Byron's  impromptu  lines  to  Moore  in  a  letter  of  May  19,  18 12, 
in  which  he  says,  speaking  of  a  projected  visit  to  Hunt  in  prison: — 
"Pray  Phoebus  at  length  our  political  maUce 
May  not  get  us  lodgings  within  the  same  palace." 

{Letters,  ii.,  204-209.) 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  97 

court  life.  Although  Moore  continued  his  satires  in  nu- 
merous verses  of  a  similar  type,  he  never  excelled  this  first 
success. 

In  March,  1812,  Byron  joined  Moore  in  assailing  the 
Regent.  In  the  Whig  Morning  Chronicle  for  March  7th 
was  printed  a  short  epigram  without  a  signature,  called 
A  Sympathetic  Address  to  a  Young  Lady.  The  lines  read 
as  follows: — 

"Weep,  daughter  of  a  Royal  line, 

A  Sire's  disgrace,  a  realm's  decay; 
Ah !  happy !  if  each  tear  of  thine 

Could  wash  a  father's  fault  away! 
Weep — for  thy  tears  are  Virtue's  tears — 

Auspicious  to  these  suffering  isles ; 
And  be  each  drop,  in  future  years, 

Repaid  thee  by  thy  people's  smiles." 

The  poem  refers  to  an  incident  which  had  taken  place 
at  Carlton  House  a  few  days  before,  when  the  Princess 
Charlotte  had  burst  into  tears  on  learning  that  her  royal 
father  was  intending  to  desert  his  Whig  adherents.  No  one, 
apparently,  suspected  that  Byron  was  the  author;  but  in 
the  second  edition  of  the  Corsair  (February,  18 14)  the  verses 
appeared  as  Lines  to  a  Lady  Weeping,  publicly  avowed 
by  him.  His  acknowledgment  brought  upon  him  a  storm 
of  abuse  from  Tory  papers — the  Courier,  the  Morning  Post, 
and  the  Sun — and  a  discussion  ensued  entirely  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  merit  of  the  epigram  which  had  excited  it.^ 
"How  odd,"  wrote  Byron  to  Murray,  "that  eight  lines 
should  have  given  birth,  I  really  think,  to  eight  thousand.''^ 
It  is  probable  that  no  single  production  of  Byron's  aroused 
more  hostile  comment  at  the  time  of  its  appearance. 

Byron's   attitude    towards    the    Regent    at    this    period 
'  See  Letters,  ii.,  463-492  (Appendix  vii.).  '  Letters,  iii.,  61. 


98  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

exposes  him  to  a  charge  of  double-dealing.  In  June,  1812, 
three  months  after  the  composition  of  the  epigram,  he  met 
the  Prince  at  a  ball  in  an  interview  in  which  the  two  men 
conversed  on  Scott  and  his  poetry.  In  relating  the  talk  to 
Scott,  Byron  mentions  that  the  Regent's  opinions  were 
conveyed  "  with  a  tone  and  taste  which  gave  me  a  very  high 
idea  of  his  abilities  and  accomplishments,  which  I  had 
hitherto  considered  as  confined  to  manners,  certainly  supe- 
rior to  those  of  any  living  gentleman.''^  It  is  probable  that 
Byron  was  a  little  flattered  by  the  Prince's  condescension; 
but  his  own  tactlessness  in  acknowledging  his  epigram  pre- 
vented any  further  intercourse,  and  he  subsequently  became 
the  Regent's  open  enemy. 

Jeaffreson  suggests  that  Byron's  avowal  of  the  Lines  to  a 
Lady  Weeping  may  have  been  hastened  by  his  sympathy 
with  Leigh  Hunt,^  who,  with  his  brother,  John  Hunt,  had 
been  tried  for  a  libel  on  the  Regent  printed  in  their  Exam- 
iner for  March  12,  1812,  and  sentenced  to  two  years'  impris- 
onment and  a  fine  of  500  pounds.  Byron  saw  a  kindred 
spirit  in  Hunt,  and,  after  meeting  him  in  prison  in  May, 
1 8 13,  became  his  close  friend.  Hunt,  on  his  part,  stood  by 
Byron  in  his  Examiner  at  the  time  of  the  latter's  separation 
from  his  wife,  and  dedicated  to  him  his  Rimini  (18 16). 
Byron,  after  the  unfortunate  circumstances  connected  with 
The  Liberal,  modified  his  lofty  opinion  of  Hunt;  but  in  18 13 
the  latter  was,  to  Moore  and  Byron,  simply  a  martyr  to 
liberal  principles,  a  man  who  had  been  unjustly  persecuted 
and  condemned.  ^  There  is,  however,  no  evidence  to  justify 
Jeafifreson's  conclusion. 

In  his  satire  on  "the  first  gentleman  of  Europe,"  B^-ron 

'  Letters,  ii.,  134. 

'  The  Real  Lord  Byron,  ii.,  51. 

3  On  December  2,  1813,  Byron  wrote  Hunt: — "I  have  a  thorough 
esteem  for  that  independence  of  spiri^-which  you  have  maintained  with 
sterling  talent,  and  at  the  expense  of  some  suffering"  {Letters,  ii.,  296). 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  99 

was  both  less  prolific  and  more  savage  than  Moore.  His 
satiric  spirit,  as  usual,  was  stimulated  by  particular  inci- 
dents which  offered  an  opportunity  for  timely  comment. 
It  had  been  ascertained  accidentally  that  Charles  I  had 
been  buried  in  the  vault  with  Henry  VIII;  and  on  April  i, 
1 8 13,  the  Regent  was  present  at  the  opening  of  the  coffins 
containing  the  ashes  of  the  two  sovereigns.  This  episode 
Byron  made  the  theme  of  two  short  satires :  Windsor  Poetics, 
circulated  in  manuscript  among  his  friends,  but  not  printed 
until  1819;  and  the  lines  On  a  Royal  Visit  to  the  Vaults,  pub- 
lished first  in  1904.  The  point  in  both  poems  is  the  same — 
that  George  combines  the  vices  of  his  two  predecessors : 

"Charles  to  his  people,  Henry  to  his  wife, — 
In  him  the  double  tyrant  starts  to  life."  * 

In  mentioning  Windsor  Poetics,  the  better  of  the  two  poems^ 
to  Moore,  B^^ron  confessed,  with  some  discernment:  "It 
is  too  farouche;  but,  truth  to  say,  my  satires  are  not  very 
playful."^ 

The  vindictive  seriousness  of  Byron's  satire,  as  contrasted 
with  Moore's  playfulness,  is  nowhere  better  ishown  than  in 
the  Condolatory  Address  to  Sarah,  Countess  of  Jersey,  printed 
without  his  permission  in  the  Champion,  July  31,  18 14,  after 
it  had  been  sent  to  the  lady  herself  in  a  lette;*  of  May  29. 
Once  a  favorite  of  the  Regent's,  Lady  Jersey  had  incurred 
his  dislike  by  her  kindness  to  the  deserted  Princess  of -Wales, 
with  the  result  that  the  Prince  returned  to  Mrs.  Mee,  the 
painter,  a  miniature  of  the  Countess,  and  announced  his 
intention  of  ignoring  her.  Byron,  who  had  been  more  than 
once  the  guest  of  Lady  Jersey,  saw  a  chance  to  strike  a  blow 
in  her  defense"  by  assailing  the  Regent,  and  his  lines  on  that 
ruler  are  scathing :  •        '  *       . 

'  Letters,  iii.,  58. 


100  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"If  he,  that  Vain  Old  Man,  whom  truth  admits 
Heir  of  his  father's  crown,  and  of  his  wits, 
If  his  corrupted  eye  and  withered  heart. 
Could  with  thy  gentle  image  bear  to  part; 
That  tasteless  shame  be  his,  and  ours  the  grief 
To  gaze  on  Beauty's  band  without  its  chief." 

In  satire  of  this  sort  there  is  nothing  sportive  or  delicate ;  it 
is  sheer  invective  of  the  kind  which  Byron  had  used  on 
Clarke  and  was  to  employ  against  Castlereagh. 

Byron  never  became  reconciled  to  the  Regent,  not  even 
when,  as  George  IV,  the  latter  ascended  the  throne.  Indeed 
what  is  probably  the  poet's  most  bitter  estimate  of  his  sov- 
ereign was  sent  in  a  letter  to  Moore  on  September  17,  1821 — 
the  lines  now  entitled  The  Irish  Avatar.  Queen  Caroline 
had  died  on  August  7,  1821,  shortly  after  the  failure  of  her 
husband  to  secure  a  divorce,  and  not  over  a  week  later, 
the  king  was  feasted  with  regal  pomp  at  Dublin  by  the 
servile  Irish  office-holders.  The  combination  of  circum- 
stances was  fit  material  for  satire,  and  Byron  spoke  out  in 
stanzas  that  ring  with  rage  and  contempt: — 

"Shout,  drink,  feast,  and  flatter!  Oh!  Erin,  how  low 
Wert  thou  sunk  by  misfortune  and  tyranny,  till 
Thy  welcome  of  tyrants  had  plunged  thee  below 
The  depth  of  thy  deep  in  a  deeper  gulf  still." 

The  satire  in  this  poem  is  as  spontaneous  and  sincere  as 
any  Byron  ever  wrote;  it  is  passionate,  convincing,  laden 
with  noble  scorn.  The  two  methods  of  irony  and  invective 
are  admirably  mingled,  without  a  trace  of  humor. 

Wc  have  already  noticed  some  early  poems  in  which 
Byron  had  evinced  a  liking  for  uncommon  rhymes.  In  the 
humorous  Farewell  to  Malta,  written  May  26,  181 1,  and 
printed   in    18 16,    he   employed   octosyllabics,    with   such 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRAN&^TIOM    .  iOJ 

rhymes  as :  yawn  sirs — dancers,  fault's  in — waltzing,  prate 
is — gratis.  The  Devil's  Drive,  an  irregular  and  amorphous 
fragment,  broken  off  on  December  9,  18 13,  also  contains 
some  extraordinary  rhymes ;  but  it  deserves  attention  espe- 
cially because  it  anticipates,  to  some  extent,  the  thought 
and  manner  of  Don  Juan.  It  is  styled  a  sequel  to  The 
Devil's  Walk,  a  fanciful  ballad  composed  by  Southey  and 
Coleridge  in  1799,  but  attributed  by  Byron  to  Porson,  the 
great  Cambridge  scholar.  Byron's  poem,  a  rambling  and 
discursive  satire,  is  crammed  with  allusions  to  current 
events,  prophetic  of  the  views  which  he  was  to  advocate 
during  the  remainder  of  his  career.  It  describes  a  night 
visit  of  the  Devil  to  his  favorites  on  earth,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  pauses  to  survey  the  battle-field  of  Leipzig,  and 
then,  passing  on  to  England,  investigates  a  Methodist 
chapel,  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  a  royal  ball,  and  other 
supposed  resorts  of  his  disciples.  Byron's  portrayal  of  the 
horrors  of  war  is  probably  his  first  satiric  expression  of  what 
was  to  become  a  frequent  theme  in  his  later  work,  and 
especially  in  Don  Juan.  As  the  Devil  gazes  down  with 
glee  at  the  bloody  plain  of  Leipzig,  the  satirist  remarks : 

"Not  often  on  earth  had  he  seen  such  a  sight, 
Nor  his  work  done  half  so  well : 
For  the  field  ran  so  red  with  the  blood  of  the  dead. 
That  it  blushed  like  the  waves  of  Hell!'" 

The  visit  of  the  Devil  to  Parliament,  with  the  poet's  com- 
ment on  the  spectacle  there,  is  reminiscent  of  some  sections 
of  the  Rolliad.  The  satire  concludes  with  some  caustic 
characterizations  of  Tory  statesmen,  some  observations  on 
the  immorality  of  round  dancing,  and  a  picture  of  sixty 
scribbling  reviewers,  brewing  damnation  for  authors. 

'  Byron's  attitude  towards  war  recalls  the  sardonic  passage  on  the 
same  subject  in  Gulliver's  Travels,  Part  IV. 


lO^  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

The  significant  feature  of  The  DeviVs  Drive  is  the  mocking 
spirit  which  animates  the  poem.  Although  the  humor  is 
sometimes  clumsy  and  cheap,  and  the  style  formless  and 
crude,  the  underlying  tone  is  no  longer  ferocious,  and  the 
satire  is  no  longer  mere  invective.  The  work  is  practically 
the  only  satire  of  Byron's  before  Beppo  in  which  are  mingled 
the  cool  scorn,  the  bizarre  wit.  and  the  grotesque  realism 
which  were  to  be  blended  in  Don  Juan.  The  poem,  too, 
is  proof  that  by  1814,  at  least,  Byron  was  firmly  fixed  in 
most  of  his  political  opinions.  He  had  shown  his  dislike 
for  Castlereagh  and  the  Regent;  he  had  expressed  himself 
as  opposed  to  all  war  and  bloodshed,  except  in  a  righteous 
cause;  and  he  had  become  an  advanced  liberal  thinker, 
ready  to  oppose  all  unp regressive  measures. 

After  the  publication  of  the  Corsair  in  January,  18 14, 
Byron  announced  his  intention  of  quitting  poetry.'  His 
resolution,  however,  was  short-lived,  for  on  April  loth  he 
wrote  Murray  that  he  had  just  finished  an  "ode  on  the  fall 
of  Napoleon."^  Byron  had,  from  the  first,  been  interested 
in  the  career  of  Napoleon,  with  whom  he  felt,  apparently, 
an  instinctive  sympathy.  The  poet's  expressed  judgments 
of  the  Emperor  seem,  however,  to  indicate  several  changes 
in  sentiment.  In  Childe  Harold  he  had  called  him  "Gaul's 
Vulture,"  and  had  spoken  of  "one  bloated  chief's  unwhole- 
some reign";  in  his  Journal  for  November  17,  18 13,  he  said: 
"He  (Napoleon)  has  been  a  Heros  de  Roman  of  mine — on 
the  Continent — I  don't  want  him  here."^  The  Ode  to 
Napoleon  Buonaparte,  composed  in  a  single  day  after  the 
news  of  the  abdication  of  Fontainebleau,  is  a  severe  attack 
on  the  fallen  Emperor,  in  which' Byron,  reproaching  him  for 
not  having  committed  suicide,  terms  him  "ill-minded  man," 
"  Dark  Spirit,"  and  "throneless  homicide,"  ending  with  an 
uncomplimentary  contrast  between  him  and  Washington. 
Nevertheless,  when  the  report  of  Waterloo  reached  him, 

^  Letters,  iii.,  64.  =  Letters,  iii.,  66.  ^  Letters,  ii.,  324. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  IO3 

Byron  cried:  "I  am  damned  sorry  for  it."  In  three  poems 
written  shortly  after — Napoleon's  Farewell,  Lilies  from  the 
French,  and  An  Ode  from  the  French — he  shows  a  kind  of 
admiration  for  the  Corsican.  Finally  came  the  splendid 
stanzas  on  Napoleon  in  Childe  Harold,  III,'  ending  with  the 
personal  reference,  implying  that  Byron's  own  faults  and 
virtues  were  those  of  the  French  emperor  and  exile. 

The  one  long  classical  satire  during  this  period  is  The 
Waltz,  which  has  to  do  primarily  with  society.  On  October 
18,  18 12,  Byron  wrote  Murray:  "I  have  a  poem  on  Waltz- 
ing for  you,  of  which  I  make  you  a  present;  but  it  must  be 
anonymous.  It  is  in  the  old  style  of  English  Bards,  and 
Scotch  Reviewers."^  The  satire  was  printed  in  the  spring 
of  1 8 13,  but  was  so  coldly  received  that  Byron,  on  April  21, 
1 8 13,  begged  Murray  to  deny  the  report  that  he  was  the 
author  of  "a  certain  malicious  publication  on  Waltzing. "^ 
The  whole  affair  leaves  Byron  under  the  suspicion  of 
duplicity. 

The  poem  was  published  with  a  motto  from  the  Aeneid : 

"Qualis  in  Eurotse  ripis,  aut  per  juga  Cynthi, 
Exercet  Diana  choros," 

and  with  a  prefatory  letter  from  "Horace  Hornem,  Esq.," 
the  professed  author.  This  imaginary  personage  is  a 
country  gentleman  of  a  Midland  county,  who  has  married 
a  middle-aged  Maid  of  Honor.  During  a  winter  in  town 
with  his  wife's  relative,  the  Countess  of  Waltzaway,  Hornem 
sees  his  spouse  at  a  ball,  waltzing  with  an  hussar,  and,  after 
several  vain  attempts  to  master  the  new  dance  himself, 
composes  the  satire  in  its  honor,  "with  the  aid  of  William 
Fitzgerald,  Esq. — and  a  few  hints  from  Dr.  Busby."  In  the 
poem,  however,  Byron  apparently  makes  no  effort  to  fit 
the  language  or  style  to  this  fictitious  figure. 

^  Childe  Harold,  III.,  ^6-52.      ^  Letters,  Vu,  176.     ^  Letters,  ii.,  202. 


104  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Although  the  waltz,  brought  originally  from  Germany, 
was,  in  1812,  steadily  winning  its  way  to  acceptance  by  the 
more  fashionable  element  of  society,  its  introduction  was 
still  meeting  with  opposition  from  many  quarters.  Byron, 
as  censor  of  the  Italian  Opera  and  of  Little's  Poems,  was 
certainl}'-  not  inconsistent  in  disapproving  of  the  foreign 
dance  on  the  ground  of  its  immodesty.  Doubtless,  too, 
his  own  lameness,  which  prevented  him  from  participating 
in  the  amusement,  had  some  influence  on  his  attitude.  He 
had  denounced  the  dance  in  English  Bards  in  the  line, 

"Now  in  loose  waltz  the  thin-clad  daughters  leap," 

and  in  Section  25  of  The  Devil's  Drive,  he  had  made  the 
Devil's  fairest  disciples  waltzers,  and  had  quoted  Satan's 
words : 

"Should  I  introduce  these  revels  among  my  younger  devils, 
They  would  all  turn  perfectly  carnal." 

Byron's  declaration  that  The  Waltz  is  in  the  style  of 
English  Bards  is  not  altogether  exact,  for  though  the  metre 
of  the  two  satires  is  the  same  and  the  same  machinery  of 
prose  notes  is  used  in  both  poems,  the  first-named  work  has 
a  kind  of  jocularity  which  distinguishes  it  from  the  more 
severe  earlier  production.  The  Waltz,  moreover,  has  some 
features  of  the  mock-heroic,  although  the  conventional 
structure  of  that  genre  is  not  made  conspicuous.  Thus  it 
begins  with  an  apostrophe  to  "Terpsichore,  Muse  of  the 
many-twinkling  feet,"  and  later,  in  true  heroic  manner,  the 
author  exclaims, 

"0  muse  of  Motion!  say 
How  first  to  Albion  found  thy  Waltz  her  way?" 

The  personification  of  "Waltz,"  carried  out  for  a  time  in 
such   phrases   as   "Nimble   Nymph,"    "Imperial   Waltz," 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  105 

"Endearing  Waltz,"  and  "Voluptuous  Waltz,"  is,  however, 
often  disregarded  or  forgotten.  She  is  described  as  a  lovely- 
stranger,  "borne  on  the  breath  of  Hyperborean  gales," 
from  Hamburg  to  England,  and  welcomed  there  by  the 
"daughters  of  the  land."  At  this  point  the  mock-heroic 
element  ceases  to  be  noticeable,  and  the  rest  of  the  poem  is 
devoted  to  an  exposure  of  the  iniquity  which  the  new  dance 
had  brought  into  English  high  society. 

It  is  in  The  Waltz  that  Byron  for  the  first  time  manifests 
the  ability  to  deal  with  political  questions  in  a  lighter  vein, 
in  a  manner  something  like  that  of  Moore.  He  alludes, 
for  instance,  to  the  Regent's  well-known  preference  for 
ladies  of  a  mature  age : 

"And  thou,  m}'  Prince!  whose  sovereign  taste  and  will 
It  is  to  love  the  lovely  beldames  still." 

This  topic  Moore  touched  upon  frequently,  particularly  in 
Intercepted  Letters,  II,  from  Major  M'Mahon,  the  Regent's 
parasite  and  pander,  and  in  The  Fudge  Family  in  Paris, 
Letter  X,  in  which  Biddy  Fudge  says, 

"The  Regent  loves  none  but  old  women  you  know." 

A  note  to  line  162  of  The  Waltz  has  a  joking  reference  to  the 
Regent's  whiskers,  an  adornment  which  had  excited  Moore's 
merriment,  especially  in  his  "rejected  drama,"  The  Book, 
appended  to  Letter  VII  of  Intercepted  Letters.  The  fact 
that  the  dance  is  an  importation  from  Germany  allows 
Byron  to  sum  up  ironically  what  England  owes  to  that 
country : 

"A  dozen  dukes,  some  kings,  a  Queen — and  Waltz." 

The  body  of  the  satire  is  occupied  with  a  description  of 
the  dance  itself,  given  in  lines  which  are  too  often  more 


I06  LORD   MVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST   IN   VERSE 

prurient  and  suggestive  than  the  waltz  could  possibly  have 
been.  Byron  is  here  surely  not  at  his  best,  and  his  coarse- 
ness is  not  extenuated  by  his  alleged  moral  purpose.  Wei- 
ser's  judgment  that  The  Waltz  is  the  ripest  of  Byron's 
youthful  poems  will,  to  most  critics,  seem  unwarranted. 
There  is  barely  a  line  of  the  satire  which  is  either  witty  or 
epigrammatic ;  the  style  is  low  and  the  language  is  cheap  in 
tone;  the  versification  is  lifeless  and  dull.  The  one  thing 
for  which  it  is  to  be  noted  is  the  spirit  of  mockery  sometimes 
displayed,  and  the  tendency  to  jest  rather  than  to  inveigh. 
The  competition  for  a  suitable  dedicatory  address  for  the 
reopening  of  Drury  Lane  Theatre  in  1812,'  memorable 
as  the  occasion  for  the  skilful  parodies  contained  in  the 
Rejected  Addresses^  of  James  and  Horace  Smith,  led  Byron 
also  to  compose  a  rather  extraordinary  satire.  The  genuine 
address  of  Dr.  Busby  (i  755-1 838)  had  been  rejected,  along 
with  those  of  the  other  competitors;  but  on  October  14th, 
two  or  three  evenings  after  the  formal  opening  of  the  theatre, 
Busby's  son  endeavored  to  recite  his  father's  poem  from  one 
of  the  boxes,  and  nearly  started  a  riot.  Byron  thereupon 
wrote  a  Parenthetical  Address,  by  Dr.  Plagiary,  which  was 
printed  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  for  October  23,  18 12. 
This  satire,  which  Byron  called  "a  parody  of  a  peculiar 
kind,"  is  noteworthy  only  in  that  it  selects  lines  and  phrases 

'  Byron  himself  was  asked  to  compete,  but  resolved  not  to  risk  his 
reputation  in  such  a  contest.  Although  112  poems  were  submitted, 
all  were  adjudged  unsatisfactory,  and  Byron  was  eventually  requested 
by  Lord  Holland  to  save  the  situation.  His  verses  were  recited  on 
October  10,  18 12,  but  met  with  small  commendation. 

"This  little  volume,  published  in  18 12,  after  having  been  refused 
by  Murray  and  others,  proved  an  overwhelming  success.  Byron  was 
dehghted  with  Cui  Bono  ?  a  clever  imitation  of  the  gloomy  and  mournful 
portions  of  Childe  Harold,  in  the  same  stanzaic  form.  Among  the  other 
writers  parodied  were  Wordsworth,  Crabbe,  Moore,  Coleridge,  and 
Lewis.  Byron  said: — "I  think  the  Rejected  Addresses  by  far  the  best 
thing  of  the  kind  since  the  Rolliad"  (Letters,  ii.,  177). 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  1 07 

from  Busby's  address,  and  connecting  them  by  satiric  com- 
ments, manages  to  make  the  original  seem  ridiculous. 

The  story  of  Byron's  love  affairs  between  1812  and  18 17 
has  been  so  often  related  that  any  presentation  of  the  details 
here  is  unnecessary,  especially  since  in  only  one  case  did  his 
amours  lead  him  to  satire.  According  to  Medwin,  Lady 
Caroline  Lamb,  the  fickle  and  incorrigible  lady  who  so 
violently  sought  Byron  for  a  lover,  called  one  day  at  the 
poet's  apartments,  and  finding  him  away,  wrote  in  a  volume 
of  Vathek  the  words  "Remember  me."  When  Byron  dis- 
covered the  warning,  he  added  to  it  two  stanzas  of  burning 
invective,  concluding, 

"Remember  thee!     Aye,  doubt  it  not. 
Thy  husband  too  shall  think  of  thee ; 
By  neither  shalt  thou  be  forgot, 

Thou  false  to  him,  thou  fiend  to  me!" 

Several  theories  have  been  advanced  to  explain  the  causes 
and  results  of  Byron's  unfortunate  marriage,  but  the  main 
facts  seem  to  be  simple  enough.  In  18 13  he  proposed  to 
Miss  Milbanke,  a  cousin  of  Lady  Caroline  Lamb's  by 
marriage,  and  was  refused.  The  intimacy  of  the  two  con- 
tinued, however,  and  a  second  offer,  made  in  18 14,  was 
accepted.  The  wedding,  which  took  place  on  January  2, 
18 1 5,  was  accompanied  by  some  inauspicious  omens,  but 
the  honeymoon,  spent  at  Halnaby,  was  apparently  happy. 
Byron's  financial  circumstances  were  straitened,  and,  on  his 
return  to  London,  he  was  pursued  by  creditors.  He  himself 
was  irritable,  unsuited  for  a  quiet  domestic  life,  and  Lady 
Byron  was  probably  over- puritanical.  At  any  rate,  who- 
ever may  have  been  the  more  at  fault,  his  wife,  soon  after 
the  opening  of  18 16,  left  him,  took  steps  to  have  his  mental 
condition  examined,  and  later  demanded  a  separation.     In 


? 


I08  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

this  crisis  of  his  life,  pubHc  opinion  sided  with  Lady  Byron, 
and  the  poet  became  a  social  outcast.'  The  deed  of  sepa- 
ration was  signed  on  April  22,  18 16,  and  on  the  25th  of  the 
same  month,  Byron  left  England  forever. 

During  the  arrangements  for  the  separation  Byron 
showed  no  resentment  towards  his  wife.  Indeed  he  wrote 
Moore  on  March  8,  1816: — "I  do  not  believe — that  there 
ever  was  a  better,  or  even  a  brighter,  a  kinder,  or  a  more 
amiable  and  agreeable  being  than  Lady  Byron." ^  His 
wrath  fell  heavily,  however,  on  Mrs.  Clermont,  Lady 
Byron's  old  governess,  who  had  come  to  stay  with  her 
mistress  when  the  trouble  began.  On  her  Byron  laid  the 
responsibility  for  the  events  which  followed.  He  thought 
her  a  spy  on  his  actions,  accused  her  of  having  broken  open 
his  desk  in  order  to  read  his  private  papers,  and  considered 
her  an  impudent  meddler.  As  he  signed  the  deed  of  separa- 
tion, he  muttered,  "This  is  Mrs.  Clermont's  work."  His 
full  rage  against  her  burst  out  in  A  Sketch,  finished  March 
29,  18 16,  and  published,  through  some  one's  indiscretion, 
in  the  Tory  Champion  for  April  14th.  Fifty  copies  of  this 
satire  were  printed  for  private  circulation,  with  Byron's 
poem  Fare  Thee  Well,  addressed  to  his  wife.  The  appearance 
of  these  verses  in  the  newspapers  started  a  violent,  contro- 
versy in  the  daily  press,  carried  out  on  party  lines. 

A  Sketch,  containing  104  lines  in  heroic  couplets,  is  a 
coarse  and  scurrilous  attack  on  Mrs.  Clermont,  beginning 
with  a  short  account  of  her  life, 

"Born  in  the  garret,  in  the  kitchen  bred, 
Promoted  thence  to  deck  her  mistress'  head," 

and  closing  with  a  terrible  imprecation, 

■  Byron  himself  said  of  this  period: — "I  felt  that,  if  what  was  whis- 
pered and  murmured  was  true,  I  was  unfit  for  England ;  if  false,  England 
was  unfit  for  me  "     {Reply  to  Blackwood's,  Letters,  iv.,  479). 

'Letters,  iii.,  272. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  IO9 

"  May  the  strong  curse  of  crush 'd  affections  light 
Back  on  thy  bosom  with  reflected  bHght! 
And  make  thee,  in  thy  leprosy  of  mind, 
As  loathsome  to  thyself  as  to  mankind! " 

Perhaps  no  more  savage  satire  was  ever  levelled  at  a  woman ; 
it  is  even  more  venomous  than  Pope's  assault  on  Lady 
Montagu  in  what  Mr.  Birrell  calls  "the  most  brutal  lines 
ever  written  by  man  of  woman."  Murray  wrote  Byron, 
after  showing  the  satire  to  Rogers,  Canning,  and  Frere: — 
"They  have  all  seen  and  admired  the  lines;  they  agree  that 
you  have  produced  nothing  better ;  that  satire  is  your  forte  ; 
and  so  in  each  class  as  you  choose  to  adopt  it. " '  These  men, 
however,  were  active  supporters  of  Byron,  and  their  praise 
seems  extravagant.  Whatever  his  provocation  may  have 
been — and  it  was  probably  great — Byron  did  not  enhance 
his  fame  by  this  barbarous  tirade. 

In  the  very  midst  of  his  anger  the  poet  pauses  in  the 
poem  to  pay  his  wife  a  tribute  and  to  assert  his  love  for  her ; 
but  not  long  after  he  turned  to  assail  Lady  Byron  herself. 
Indeed  he  is  said  to  have  attached  an  epigram  to  the  deed  of 
separation, 

"A  year  ago  you  swore,  fond  she! 
'To  love,  to  honour,'  and  so  forth: 
Such  was  the  vow  you  pledged  to  me. 
And  here  's  exactly  what  't  is  worth." 

In  September,  1816,  when  he  was  in  Switzerland,  he  wrote 
the  Lines  on  Hearing  that  Lady  Byron  Was  III,  in  which  he 
fairly  gloats  over  her  in  her  sickness.  No  one  can  mistake 
the  meaning  of  the  line, 

"I  have  had  many  foes,  but  none  like  thee," 

or  of  the  charge, 
^  Letters,  iii.,  278. 


no  LORD  HYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

"Of  thy  virtues  didst  thou  make  a  vice, 
Trafficking  with  them  in  a  purpose  cold, 
For  present  anger  and  for  future  gold." 

These  stanzas,  however,  were  not  printed  until  1832.  In 
the  meantime  Byron  had  continued  the  attack  on  his  wife 
in  Childe  Harold,  III,  117,  and  IV,  130-138,  in  Don  Juan, 
and  in  an  occasional  short  epigram  sent  to  friends  in  Eng- 
land. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  as  the  years  went  by 
and  his  attempts  at  reconciliation  were  thwarted,  he  grew 
thoroughly  embittered  against  her. 

Byron's  habits  of  thought  were  so  frequently  satirical 
that  it  was  natural  for  him  to  introduce  satire  even  into 
poems  which  were  obviously  of  a  different  character.  In 
his  preface  to  Childe  Harold  he  announced  his  intention  of 
following  Beattie  in  giving  full  rein  to  his  inclination,  and 
being  "either  droll  or  pathetic,  descriptive  or  sentimental, 
tender  or  satirical"  as  the  mood  came  to  him.  In  that 
poem  the  moralizing  and  didactic  elements  often  closely 
approach  satire,  and  there  are  some  passages  of  genuine 
invective,  a  few  of  which  have  already  been  indicated. 

In  the  first  canto  a  visit  to  Cintra  leads  Byron  into  an 
indictment  of  the  Convention  of  Cintra  (1808),  signed  by 
Kellerman  and  Wellesley,  by  the  terms  of  which  the  French 
troops  in  Portugal  were  permitted  to  evacuate  with  artillery, 
cavalry,  and  equipment.  This  agreement  was  regarded  by 
the  home  officials  as  equivalent  to  treason,  and  the  men 
responsible  were  subjected  to  some  rigorous  criticism. 
Byron  took  the  popular  side  of  the  question  in  saying, 

"Ever  since  that  martial  synod  met, 
Brittannia  sickens,  Cintra,  at  thy  name."' 

This  patriotic  mood  seems,  however,  to  have  been  a  passing 
one.     In  after  years  he  was  not  inclined  to  take  the  part 
'  Childe  Harold,  I.,  26. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  III 

of  his  country.  Of  a  different  sort  are  the  stanzas  on  a 
London  Sunday^  which,  in  Moore's  opinion,  disfigure  the 
poem.  Canto  I  has  also  some  satiric  animadversions  upon 
women,  notably  the  lines, 

"Maidens,  like  moths,  are  ever  caught  by  glare. 
And  Mammon  wins  his  way  where  Seraphs  might  despair. ' '  ^ 

In  the  final  version  of  the  first  two  cantos  some  stanzas  of 
a  satiric  tone  were  omitted,  among  them  lines  on  Frere, 
Carr,  and  Wellesley  in  Canto  I,  and  passages  on  Elgin, 
Hope,  Gell,  and  the  "gentle  Dilettanti"  in  Canto  II. 

A  few  ephemeral  verses  of  this  period  still  remain  unno- 
ticed :  an  occasional  epistle  in  rhyme  to  Moore  or  Murray ; 
four  brief  squibs  on  Lord  Thurlow's  poetry;  and  several 
unimportant  epigrams  on  trivial  subjects.  No  one  of  them 
is  significant  as  literature,  and  they  may  well  be  passed  by 
without  comment. 

In  a  last  glance  at  Byron's  satiric  production  from  1811 
to  1818  we  perceive  that,  with  the  single  exception  of  Hints 
from  Horace,  an  avowed  imitation,  his  work  was  directed 
towards  definite  ends.  He  was  little  given  to  vague  denun- 
ciation; on  the  contrary,  in  touch  as  he  was  with  current 
events  and  a  keen  observer  of  what  was  going  on  around 
him,  he  aimed,  in  his  satire,  at  specific  evils  and  follies.  It 
is  interesting,  too,  that  most  of  his  work  after  his  return 
from  abroad  was  journalistic  and  transitory,  hastily  con- 
ceived and  carelessly  composed.  At  the  same  time  there 
are  signs  of  a  change  in  spirit.  Though  he  still  continues 
to  burst  out  into  invective  on  provocation,  he  is  beginning 
to  recognize  the  value  of  humor  and  mockery.  More  and 
more  he  is  employing  new  metrical  forms,  and  neglecting 
the  heroic  couplet  for  freer  and  more  varied  measures. 

When  Byron  left  England  in  1816,  he  had  been  taught 

^  Childe  Harold,  I.,  69-70.  '  Childe  Harold,  I.,  9. 


112  LORD   BVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

much  by  experience  and  had  acquired  some  maturity  of 
judgment.  To  some  extent,  though  not  entirely,  he  had 
outgrown  the  affectation  and  morbid  pessimism  of  his  boy- 
hood. In  a  stern  school  he  had  learned  many  lessons,  and, 
as  a  result,  his  satire  from  the  time  of  his  voluntary  exile 
until  his  death  displays  a  different  spirit.  When  at  last 
he  discovered  an  artistic  form  and  style  in  which  to  embody 
it,  it  showed  a  decided  gain  in  merit  and  originality  over 
English  Bards,  which,  in  1817,  was  still  the  best  satire  he 
had  written. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE 


Shortly  after  the  momentous  year  1816,  an  extraordinary 
development  took  place  in  the  form  and  spirit  of  Byron's 
satiric  work  in  verse.  Up  to  this  date,  as  we  have  seen, 
his  satires  of  any  literary  value  had  followed,  as  a  rule,  the 
general  plan  and  manner  used  by  the  authors  of  such  typical 
productions  as  the  Dunciad,  the  Rosciad,  and  the  Baviad. 
In  some  ephemeral  verses,  it  is  true,  he  had  shown  signs 
of  breaking  away  from  the  English  classical  tradition;  but 
few,  if  any,  of  these  unimportant  occasional  poems  had 
been  printed  in  book  form.  They  had  appeared  in  news- 
papers or  in  letters  to  correspondents,  and  Byron  himself 
would  have  made  no  claim  for  their  permanence.  His 
published  satires,  then,  had  deviated  little  from  the  stand- 
ard set  by  Pope  and  Gifford,  a  fact  all  the  more  remarkable 
because  his  work  in  the  other  branches  of  literature  in  which 
he  had  distinguished  himself  had  revealed  a  wide  discrep- 
ancy between  his  utterances  as  a  critic  and  his  practice  as ' 
a  poet.  The  enthusiastic  and  often  extravagant  eulogist 
of  Pope  had  been  the  author  of  the  romantic  Childe  Harold 
and  The  Giaour.  In  one  field  of  letters,  however,  Byron 
had  preserved  some  consistency;  before  181 8,  considered 
as  a  satirist,  he  must  be  classed  as  one  of  the  numerous 
disciples  of  the  great  Augustan. 

The  publication  of  Beppo,  February  28,  1818,  may  serve 
roughly  to  denote  the  visible  turning-point  between  the  old 
era  and  the  new  one  to  come.     It  is  significant  that  this 

113 


114  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

poem  is  written,  not  in  the  characteristically  English  heroic 
couplet,  but  in  the  thoroughly  foreign  ottava  rima.  Re- 
sponsive to  an  altered  and  agreeable  environment,  Byron 
found  in  Italy  and  its  literature  an  inspiration  which  affec- 
ted him  even  more  profoundly  than  it  had  Goethe  only  a 
(  few  decades  before.  The  results  of  this  influence,  shown  to 
4  some  extent  in  his  dramas  though  more  decidedly  in  his 
'.satires,  justify  terming  the  years  from  1817  until  his  death 
his  Italian  period.  A  mere  mention  of  its  contribution  to 
satire  indicates  its  importance:  it  produced  Beppo,  The 
Vision  of  Judgment,  and  Don  Juan.  Of  these  poems, 
Beppo  is,  strictly  speaking,  a  satiric  novella;  The  Vision  of 
Judgment  is  a  travesty;  and  Don  Juan  is  an  "epic  satire." 
They  are,  however,  all  three  closely  related:  first,  in  that, 
unlike  most  of  the  earlier  satires,  they  are  narrative  in 
method ;  second,  in  that  they  are  infused  with  what  we  may 
call,  for  want  of  a  better  phrase,  the  Italian  spirit.  What 
this  spirit  is  we  may  well  leave  for  future  discussion.  It  is 
enough  here  to  point  out  that  it  is  characterized  by  a  kind 
of  playfulness,  half  gayety  and  half  mockery,  often  tinged 
with  iron}'  and  reflecting  a  cynical  tolerance,  and  that  it 
adopts  a  style  informal  and  colloquial,  in  which  the  satirist 
unbends  to  his  readers  and  feigns  to  let  them  into  his  con- 
fidence. The  bare  outlining  of  these  features  alone  proves 
how  far  Byron  departed  from  the  usually  serious,  dignified, 
and  formal  satire  of  Pope  and  Gifford. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  erroneous  to  assume  that  Byron, 
before  he  first  touched  Italian  soil  in  1816,  was  unfamiliar 
with  the  language.  If,  as  Moore  says,  he  had  read  Httle 
of  it  up  to  1807,  he  still  must  have  gained  some  acquaintance 
with  it  on  his  early  travels,  for  on  January  14,  1811,  he  wrote 
his  mother  from  Athens: — "Being  tolerably  master  of  the 
Italian  and  Modem  Greek  languages — I  can  order  and  dis- 
course more  than  enough  for  a  reasonable  man."'  In  a 
'  Letters,  i.,  308. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  II5 

letter  of  August  24,  1811,  he  used  Italian  words, '  and  in  18 12 
he  criticized  with  much  intelligence  the  "  Italian  rhymes"  of 
W.  R.  Spencer.^  There  are  several  references  in  his  Diary 
to  his  study  of  Italian  writers.^  In  his  Hbrary,  sold  in  18 16 
to  satisfy  his  creditors,  were  many  Italian  books;  indeed 
Fuhrman  computes  that  by  that  date  he  had  gone  through 
Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  Boiardo,  Bandello,  Ariosto, 
Alfieri,  Monti,  and  Goldoni,  besides  many  minor  historians, 
essayists,  and  poets. ''  Finally  when  he  actually  set  foot  in 
Italy,  he  was  able  to  assure  Murray: — "As  for  Itahan,  I 
am  fluent  enough." ^  Nothing  up  to  this  time,  howeveri 
had  induced  him  to  become  an  imitator  of  the  Italians. 
Although  he  had  commended  Hunt's  Rimini  for  having  two 
excellent  features,  "originality  and  Italianism,"  he  had, 
apparently,  no  idea  of  emulating  Hunt  in  seeking  for  a 
stimulus  from  Italian  sources.  *"  '■Iv^ 

In  mid-October,  1816,  Byron  arrived  in  Italy  from  Switz- 
erland, making  his  first  halt  at  Milan.  From  then  on  until 
he  set  out  for  Greece  on  July  23,  1823,  he  was  a  continuous 
dweller  in  the  peninsula,  settling  for  a  time  at  and  near 
Venice,  in  the  meanwhile  making  an  excursion  to  Florence 
and  Rome,  going  later  to  Ravenna,  and  at  last  residing  at 
Pisa  and  Genoa.  The  interesting  details  of  his  life  in  these 
places  are  sufficiently  well  known  through  his  own  letters 
and  the  records  given  to  the  world  by  Hunt,  Medwin, 
the  Countess  of  Blessington,  Trelawney,  Moore,  and  others. 
His  reputation  as  the  author  of  Childe  Harold  served  as  a 
means  of  introduction  to  men  of  letters;  his  noble  birth 
procured  him  admission  into  social  circles;  and  naturally 
he  acquired  an  intimate  knowledge  of  Italian  customs,  as 
well  as  a  wide  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  the  coun- 

*  Letters,  ii.,  5.  '  See  Letters,  ii.,  413  (Appendix  i.). 

3  Letters,  ii.,  379;  ii,  403. 

^  See  Fuhrman's  Die  Belesenheit  desjungen  Byron,  Berlin,  1903. 
5  Letters,  iii.,  19. 


Il6  LORD  BYRON   AS  A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

try,  both  mediaeval  and  modern.  He  engaged  in  several 
liaisons  in  Venice,  and  in  1819  became  the  accepted  cicisbeo 
of  the  Countess  Guiccioli.  By  aiding  the  secret  organiza- 
tion of  the  Carbonari,  he  enrolled  himself  in  the  struggle 
for  Italian  independence  and  made  himself  an  object  of 
suspicion  to  the  police.  It  is  no  wonder  that  he  wrote  to 
Moore  in  1820: — "  I  suspect  I  know  a  thing  or  two  of  Italy — 
I  have  lived  in  the  heart  of  their  houses,  in  parts  of  Italy 
freshest  and  least  influenced  by  strangers — have  seen  and 
become  {pars  magna  fui)  a  portion  of  their  hopes,  and  fears, 
and  passions. ' ' "  The  immediate  consequences  of  this  assimi- 
lation may  be  recognized  in  Beppo,  composed  in  18 17, 
which,  slight  and  inconsiderable  though  it  seems,  is  never- 
theless the  prelude  to  the  fuller  voice  of  Do?i  Juan,  the 
product  of  Byron's  ripest  genius. 

The  problem  is  to  determine,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  in 
what  way  and  to  what  extent  Byron  is  indebted  to  Italy 
and  Italian  writers  in  Beppo,  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  and 
Don  Juan.  The  process  of  arriving  at  a  satisfactory  answer 
to  these  queries  cannot  be  an  easy  one,  because  it  so  often 
necessitates  dealing  with  qualities  of  style  which  are  some- 
what intangible.  We  may  set  aside  at  once  any  supposition 
that  Byron  stole  habitually  from  the  Italian  satirists  by 
translating  their  phrases  or  transferring  their  ideas,  unac- 
knowledged, to  his  own  pages.  He  was  rarely  a  plagiarist 
in  the  sense  that  he  conveyed  the  words  of  others  bodily  into 
his  own  stanzas,  and  when,  as  in  sections  of  Don  Juan,  he 
pataphrased  the  prose  of  historians,  he  frankly  admitted 
his  obligation.  But  his  creative  impulse  was  likely  to  be 
affected  by  any  book  which  had  recently  aroused  his  admir- 
ation. Moore,  who  knew  the  operations  of  Byron's 
mind  as  no  one  else  did,  said: — " There  are  few  of  his  poems 
that  might  not  ...  be  traced  to  the  strong  impulse  given 
to  his  imagination  by  the  perusal  of  some  work  that  had 

'Letters,  v.,  70. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  II7 

just  before  interested  him."'  Obviously,  when  a  particular 
poem  was  composed  under  such  inspiration,  we  shall  find 
it  difficult  to  measure  the  extent  of  Byron's  dependence 
upon  the  book  which  offered  him  a  stimulus.  Now  and 
then,  it  is  true,  there  are  passages  in  his  satires  which  recall 
at  once  similar  lines  in  Italian  writers,  and  occasionally  we 
find  him  using  a  trick  of  theirs  which  it  seems  improbable 
he  could  have  learned  elsewhere :  in  such  cases  the  relation- 
ship is  clear  enough.  On  the  other  hand,  we  may  feel 
convinced  that  Byron  drew  from  the  Italian  satirists  some- 
thing of  their  general  tone,  and  yet  be  unable  to  clarify 
our  reasons  for  this  belief  or  to  frame  them  into  an  effective 
argument.  Of  such  a  sort,  indeed,  is  much  of  the  influence 
which  Pulci,  Bemi,  and  Casti  had  on  Byron.  It  is  vague 
and  evasive,  but  it  undoubtedly  exists.  Perhaps  at  bottom 
it  is  little  more  than  the  habit  of  thinking  in  a  peculiar  way 
or  of  surveying  objects  from  an  unusual  point  of  view.  But 
whatever  is  the  basis  of  this  satiric  manner,  it  influenced 
Byron's  work,  and  made  his  later  satires  almost  unique  in 
English. 

It  is  in  Beppo,  as  has  been  said,  that  this  new  mood  first 
has  full  expression.  Yet,  curiously  enough,  we  are  at  once 
forced  into  the  paradox  that  Byron  may  have  been  taught 
something  of  the  Italian  spirit  in  Beppo  through  the  medium 
of  an  English  poem,  to  which  he  explicitly  turns  our  atten- 
tion. In  1 81 7  a  book  was  published  by  Murray  with  the 
odd  title,  Prospectus  and  Specimen  of  an  Intended  National 
Work,  by  William  and  Robert  Whistlecraft,  of  Stowmarket,  in 
Suffolk,  Harness  and  Collar  Makers,  Intended  to  Comprise  the 
Most  Interesting  Particulars  Relating  to  King  Arthur  and  his 
Round  Table.  The  volume  contained  only  two  short  cantos 
in  ottava  rima,  the  whole  making  up,  with  the  eleven 
stanzas  of  introduction,  99  stanzas,  exactly  the  length  of 
Beppo.     Early  in  181 8  two  more  cantos  were  added,  and 

'  Life  of  Byron,  iv.,  237. 


Il8  LORD  BVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST   IN   VERSE 

in  the  same  year  the  entire  poem  was  printed  as  The  Monks, 
and  the  Giants.  Although  no  author's  signature  was 
attached,  credit  was  rightfully  bestowed  upon  John  Hook- 
ham  Frere  (i  769-1 846),  already  mentioned  as  a  brilliant 
contributor  to  the  poetry  of  the  Anti- Jacobin.^  Like 
Mathias,  Roscoe,  Rose,  and  others  among  his  contem- 
poraries, Frere  had  been  an  assiduous  student  of  Italian, 
and  had  read  extensively  in  the  Italian  romantic  and  bur- 
lesque poets  from  Pulci  to  Casti.  It  was  doubtless  interest 
in  this  literature  that  led  him  to  the  composition  of  The 
Monks,  and  the  Giants,  for  which  work  he  borrowed  from 
the  Italians  their  octave  stanza,  an  occasional  episode,  and 
as  much  of  their  manner  as  his  nature  could  absorb.^ 

Byron's  first  mention  of  Beppo  occurs  in  a  letter  of  Octo- 
ber 12,  1817,  to  Murray: — "I  have  written  a  poem  (of  84 
octave  stanzas),  humourous,  in  or  after  the  excellent  man- 
ner of  Mr.  Whistlecraft  (whom  I  take  to  be  Frere),  on  a 
Venetian  anecdote  which  amused  me."^  On  October  23d 
he  repeats  this  assertion : — "  Mr.  Whistlecraft  has  no  greater 
admirer  than  myself.  I  have  written  a  story  in  89  stanzas, 
in  imitation  of  him,  called  Beppo.''*  Although  the  definite- 
ness  of  these  statements  is  unquestionable,  it  is,  neverthe- 

'  Frere  was  well  known  in  18 17  as  a  prominent  London  wit.  His 
career  as  a  diplomat,  which  apparently  promised  him  high  preferment, 
had  been  cut  short  by  some  unlucky  transactions  leading  to  his  being 
held  partly  responsible  for  the  failure  of  the  Peninsular  campaign,  and 
he  had  been  recalled  in  1809  from  his  position  as  envoy  to  Ferdinand 
VII.  of  Spain.  The  incident  drew  upon  him  Byron's  lines  on  "blun- 
dering Frere  "  in  some  expunged  stanzas  of  Childe  Harold,  I.  Piqued  by 
the  action  of  the  government  and  constitutionally  inclined  to  inactivity, 
Frere  had  since  led  an  indolent  and  self-indulgent  existence  as  scholar 
and  clubman. 

'  Dr.  Eichler  finds  that  Frere  drew  something  from  Aristophanes  and 
Cervantes,  but  more  from  Pulci,  Berni,  and  Casti.  For  Frere's  indebt- 
edness to  the  Italians,  see  Eichler's  Frere,  115. 

i  Letters,  \v.,  172.  *  Letters,  iv.,  176. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  119 

less,  essential  to  ascertain  just  how  literally  we  are  to  accept 
Byron's  confession  that  Beppo  is  "in  the  excellent  manner 
of  Mr.  Whistlecraft." 

The  problem  has  been  discussed  in  detail  by  Albert 
Eichlcr  in  his  treatise,  John  Hookham  Frere,  Sein  Leben  und 
seme  Werke,  Sein  Einfliiss  auf  Lord  Byron  (1905),  and  his 
conclusions  are,  in  many  respects,  trustworthy.  After 
comparing  Beppo  with  Frere's  poem,  Dr.  Eichler  maintains 
that  Byron's  inspiration  may  be  traced  to  The  Monks,  and 
the  Giants,  and  makes  the  following  assertion  regarding  the 
sources  of  Byron's  work: — "Die  Italien  duerfen  wir  als 
Quellen  hiebei  mit  Recht  nach  des  Dichters  eigenen  Aues- 
serungen  und  auch  aus  zeitlichen  Gruenden  ausschliessen." 
This  statement,  which  is  certainly  stronger  than  the  evi- 
dence warrants,  may  be  controverted  on  two  grounds: 
first,  that,  in  spite  of  some  superficial  resemblances  between 
the  two  poems,  there  is  much  in  Beppo  that  Byron  could 
not  have  gained  from  Frere,  indeed  which  he  could  have 
learned  only  from  a  close  study  of  the  Italian  poets;  sec- 
ondly, that  Byron  actually  knew  the  work  of  Casti  well  at 
the  time  when  he  composed  Beppo. 

The  likeness  in  stanza  form  and  Byron's  own  acknowl- 
edgment of  his  model  have,  in  all  probability,  been  some- 
what over-emphasized.  So  much  do  the  two  works  differ 
in  plot  that  there  is  no  single  case  in  which  Byron  could  have 
adopted  a  situation  or  an  incident  from  Frere.  The  story 
of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants  is  told  by  an  imaginary  per- 
sonage, Robert  Whistlecraft,  just  as  The  Waltz  is  supposed 
to  have  been  composed  by  the  fictitious  "Horace  Homem, 
Esq.,"  and  the  language  of  the  poem  is  fitted  to  the  station 
and  education  of  this  figure,  who  is  thoroughly  British  and 
entirely  Frere's  creation.  The  poem  itself,  fragmentary 
and  amorphous  even  in  its  final  state,  is  a  jumble  of  poorly 
organized  themes.  Beginning  in  Canto  I  with  a  description 
of  Arthur's  court  and  of  his  three  valorous  knights,  Lance- 


120  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

lot,  Tristram,  and  Gawain,  it  proceeds  to  treat  in  Canto  II 
of  an  attack  of  the  banded  Arthurian  chivalry  on  the  castle 
of  the  Giants,  a  race  who  resemble,  in  some  respects,  the 
giants  in  Pulci's  Morgante  Maggiore.  At  this  point  the 
knights  disappear  from  the  story,  Arthur  being  mentioned 
only  once  during  the  rest  of  the  tale,  and  Frere,  imitating 
in  part  the  first  canto  of  the  Morgante  Maggiore,  takes  a 
monastery  for  his  scene  and  a  siege  of  the  religious  brethren 
by  the  Giants  for  his  main  action.  Friar  John's  quarrel 
with  the  Tintinabularians,  his  enforced  leadership  after 
the  death  of  the  venerable  abbot,  the  assault  of  the  Giants, 
the  successful  defence  of  the  Monks,  and  the  eventual 
retreat  of  the  assailing  party: — these  are  the  significant 
incidents  in  the  second  half  of  a  work  which  obviously 
depends  little  on  the  unity  of  its  plot. 

Beppo  is  also  a  narrative,  founded  on  a  rather  unim- 
pressive anecdote.  The  merchant,  Beppo,  departed  on  a 
trading  trip,  fails  to  return  to  his  wife,  Laura,  and  she, 
thinking  him  dead,  consoles  herself  with  a  Count  for  her 
lover.  After  some  years,  Beppo  comes  back,  to  meet  his 
wife  and  her  cavalier  at  a  ball.  She  is  reconciled  to  her 
husband,  the  Count  becomes  Beppo's  friend,  and  the  story 
ends.  Since  these  main  features  of  the  plot  differ  so  widely 
from  the  incidents  in  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants,  we  are 
forced  to  seek,  therefore,  for  similarities  in  manner  and 
style  between  the  two  poems. 

Unquestionably  the  fact  that  Frere's  work  was  written 
in  ottava  rima'  did  affect  Byron.     It  is  true  that  the  latter 

"  While  it  is  undisputed  that  the  ottava  rima  is  a  native  Italian 
stanza,  its  origin  has  never  been  satisfactorily  determined.  That  it 
was  a  common  measure  before  the  time  of  Boccaccio  is  easily  demon- 
strable; but  it  is  equally  probable  that  he,  in  his  Teseide,  was  the  earliest 
writer  to  employ  it  consciously  for  literary  purposes.  With  him  it 
assumed  the  form  which  it  was  to  preserve  for  centuries:  eight  en- 
decasyllabic  lines,  rhyming  abababcc.     In  Pulci's  Morgante  Maggiore 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  121 

poet  had  selected  the  octave  stanza  for  his  Epistle  to  Augusta, 
composed  near  Geneva  in  1816,  before  he  had  entered  Italy 
and  before  Frere's  poem  had  come  to  his  attention;  but  the 
Epistle  had  been  serious  and  romantic,  without  a  touch  of 
humor  or  of  satire.  Byron  had  also  been  familiar  with  the 
use  of  the  octave  stanza  in  Ariosto's  Orlando  Furioso,  and, 
as  we  shall  see,  in  Casti's  Novelle.  But  of  its  employment 
in   English  for  humorous   purposes  there  had  been   few 

it  became  freer  and  less  dignified,  without  losing  any  of  its  essential 
characteristics.  Pulci  made  ottava  rima  the  standard  measure  for  the 
Italian  romantic  epic  and  burlesque,  and  it  was  used  by  men  differing  so 
greatly  in  nature  and  motive  as  Boiardo,  Berni,  Tasso,  Marino,  Tassoni, 
Forteguerri,  and  Casti.  To  the  Italian  language,  rich  in  double  and 
triple  rhymes,  it  is  especially  well  suited ;  and  its  elasticity  is  proved  by 
its  effective  employment  in  both  the  lofty  epic  of  Tasso  and  the  vulgar 
verse  of  Casti. 

In  Enghsh  the  borrowed  ottava  rima  has  had  strange  vicissitudes. 
Transferred  to  our  literature,  along  with  other  Itahan  metrical  forms, 
by  Wyatt  and  Surrey,  it  was  managed  by  them  crudely,  but  still  with 
some  success.  At  least  nineteen  short  poems  by  Wyatt  are  in  this 
stanza.  A  typical  illustration  of  its  state  at  this  period  may  be  exam- 
ined in  Surrey's  To  His  Mistresse.  In  Elizabethan  days  the  octave  had 
a  sporadic  popularity.  Although  Spenser  made  choice  of  his  own  inven- 
ted stanza  for  his  Faerie  Queen,  he  tried  ottava  rima  in  Virgil's  Gnat. 
Daniel  in  The  Civille  Warres  and  Drayton  in  The  Barrons'  Warres  asso- 
ciated it  with  tedium  and  dulness.  It  was,  of  course,  natural  that 
Fairfax,  in  his  fine  version  of  Tasso,  should  adopt  the  stanza  of  his 
original;  and  Harington  translated  Ariosto  in  the  same  measure,  giving 
it,  probably  for  the  first  time  in  EngUsh,  a  little  of  the  burlesque  tone 
which  was  typical  of  the  Italians.  Milton,  in  the  epilogue  to  Lycidas, 
used  the  octave  with  reserved  stateliness;  while  Gay,  in  Mr.  Pope's  Wel- 
come from  Greece,  made  it  a  vehicle  for  quiet  merriment. 

During  the  eighteenth  century  the  predominance  of  the  heroic  couplet 
hindered  the  spread  of  exotic  verse  forms — and  the  octave  was  still 
exotic.  In  1812,  William  Tennant  (1786-1846),  an  obscure  Scotch 
schoolmaster,  revived  it  in  his  burlesque  epic,  Anster  Fair,  modifying 
the  structure  by  changing  the  last  line  to  an  alexandrine.  Then  came 
Merivale,  Byron,  Rose,  Procter,  and  Keats,  who  settled  the  measure 
as  a  standard  form  in  modem  English  literature. 


122  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

examples,  and  Byron  made  no  reference  to  any  such  experi- 
ments by  English  poets. 

In  managing  the  octave,  Frere  had  resorted  to  a  some- 
what free  and  loose  versification,  diversified  by  frequent 
run-on  lines  ancj  many  novel  rhymes.  Probably  this  uncon- 
strained metrical  structure  appealed  greatly  to  Byron;  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  since  i8i  i  he  had  been  avoiding 
the  heroic  couplet  and  practising  in  some  less  restricted 
measures.  In  Childe  Harold  he  had  used  a  true  stanzaic 
form,  occasionally  with  humorous  effect.  He  had  also, 
even  in  his  first  published  volume,  shown  facility  in  the 
rhyming  of  extraordinary  words  and  combinations  of  syl- 
lables, an  art  in  which  he  had  as  guides  Butler,  Swift,  and 
Moore,  all  of  whom  were  more  skilful  than  Frere.  Granting 
that  Frere  did  suggest  to  Byron  the  possibility  of  making 
the  octave  a  colloquial  stanza,  we  cannot  escape  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  latter  went  beyond  his  model.  For  one  thing, 
he  was  less  careful  about  accuracy  in  rhyming.  Eichler, 
after  a  detailed  examination  of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants 
and  Beppo,  estimates  that  in  the  former  poem  only  one 
rhyme  out  of  thirty  is  humorously  inexact,  in  the  latter, 
one  out  of  six.  Frere's  entire  work,  more  than  double  the 
length  of  Beppo,  has  only  eleven  examples  of  "two-word 
rhymes,"  while  Beppo  has  fifty-one.  Eichler's  tables  show 
conclusively  that  Byron  employed  for  rhymes  many  more 
foreign  words  and  proper  names  than  Frere,  and  that  he 
discovered  more  odd  combinations  of  English  words.  In 
addition  he  utilized  the  enjambement  in  a  more  daring 
fashion.  Certainly,  in  nearly  every  respect,  Byron  was 
more  lax  in  his  versification  than  Frere  had  been  in  his. ' 

Another  uncommon  feature  of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants 
is  its  adoption  of  a  vocabulary  drawn  from  the  language  of 
every-day  life.     Whistlecraft,  the  imaginary  author,  is,  we 

'  For  a  detailed  comparison  of  the  versification  of  Beppo  with  that 
of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants,  see  Eichler's  Frere,  170-184. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  1 23 

are  led  to  understand,  a  rather  talkative  bourgeois.  In 
fitting  his  diction  to  this  middle-class  artisan,  Frere  intro- 
duced many  expressions  which  seem  unpoetic,  and  con- 
sciously avoiding  any  effort  at  elevated  speech,  aimed  at  a 
kind  of  colloquial  talk,  illustrated  in  such  contractions  as, 
"I  '  U  "  and  "  I '  ve  "  and  slang  phrases  like  ' '  play  the  deuce . ' ' 
The  vigor  and  picturesqueness  of  this  conversational  style 
impressed  Byron  and  doubtless  had  some  influence  in  lead- 
ing him,  in  Beppo,  to  sink  into  street- jargon,  well  adapted 
to  the  tone  of  his  poem.  To  some  extent,  as  Eichler  indi- 
cates, this  informal  diction  coaxed  him  away  from  the 
correctness  of  Pope,  and  enabled  him  to  give  freer  rein  to 
his  shifting  moods. 

The  fictitious  Whistlecraft  has  a  habit,  corresponding 
somewhat  to  a  peculiarity  of  the  Italian  burlesque  poets,  of 
digressing  from  the  main  thread  of  the  story  in  order  to 
gossip  about  himself  or  his  opinions.  The  first  lines  in  the 
poem, 

"I  've  often  wished  that  I  might  write  a  book 
Such  as  all  English  people  might  peruse,"^ 

set  a  conversational  key.  The  introduction  of  eleven 
stanzas  is  devoted  to  a  prefatory  monologue,  and  in  the 
body  of  the  work  there  are  digressions  in  the  same  vein, 
never  long  continued,  and  each  in  the  nature  of  a  brief  aside 
to  the  reader.  Sometimes  they  are  merely  interpolations 
having  reference  to  the  narrator's  method : 

"We  must  take  care  in  our  poetic  cruise, 
And  never  hold  a  single  tack  too  long."^ 

In  other  cases,  they  are  comments  suggested  by  a  turn  in  the 

*  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants,  Introduction,  i . 
'  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants  I.,  9. 


124  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

plot.  With  this  feature  of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants 
Byron  was,  of  course,  familiar  through  his  reading  in  one 
or  more  of  the  Italian  writers  from  whom  Frere  had  partly 
borrowed  it.  and  when  he  adopted  it  in  Beppo,  he  reverted 
to  them  rather  than  to  the  Englishman.  The  element  of 
digression  does  not  become  conspicuous  in  Frere's  poem 
until  the  last  two  cantos,  which  could  not  have  influenced 
Byron  in  Beppo .^  Again  Frere,  who  was  deficient  in 
aggressiveness,  had  not  wished  to  employ  the  digression 
as  a  means  of  introducing  personal  satire.  Since  he  himself 
remained  anonymous  and  did  not  pretend  to  make  his 
poem  a  polemic,  he  refused  to  utilize  these  opportunities 
for  advancing  his  particular  whims  or  prejudices.  Byron, 
however,  seeing  the  possibilities  latent  in  the  discursive 
method  and  recalling  its  importance  in  Italian  satire,  used 
it  for  the  promulgation  of  his  ideas,  interesting  himself 
more  in  his  chat  with  the  reader  than  he  did  in  the  story. 
In  Beppo  he  constantly  wanders  from  the  tale  to  pursue 
varied  lines  of  thought,  returning  to  the  plot  more  from  a 
sense  of  duty  than  from  desire.^     In  these  talks  with  his 

'  Dr.  Eichler  has  neglected  to  notice  the  important  fact  that  at  the 
time  of  the  composition  of  Beppo,  Byron  could  have  been  familiar  with 
only  the  first  two  cantos  of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants.  A  brief  com- 
parison of  dates  will  establish  this  point.  Cantos  I.  and  II.  of  Frere's 
poem  were  published  in  1817;  Beppo,  written  in  the  autumn  of  18 17 
{Letters,  iv.,  172),  was  sent  to  Murray  on  January  19,  1818  {Letters,  iv., 
193),  and  given  out  for  sale  on  February  28  of  the  same  year.  Not  until 
later  in  1818  were  the  last  two  cantos  of  Frere's  work  printed,  and  the 
full  edition  of  four  cantos  came  out  some  months  later.  On  July  17, 
1818,  Byron  wrote  Murray,  "I  shall  be  glad  of  Whistlecraft,"  referring 
doubtless  to  the  newly  issued  complete  edition  of  The  Monks,  and  the 
Giants. 

Only  36  of  the  99  stanzas  in  Beppo  are  devoted  entirely  to  the  plot. 
The  greater  portion  of  the  poem  is  occupied  with  digressions  upon  many 
subjects,  containing  some  personal  satire,  some  comment  on  political 
and  literary  topics,  and  much  discursive  chat  upon  social  life  and  morals. 
The  plot  serves  only  as  a  frame  for  the  satire. 


A 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I25 


audience,   full  of  satiric  references    to    English    manners -^/^^y/^^^ 
and  morals,    and    tinctured    with    mocking    observations  ^^i^,  ^  , 
on  his  contemporaries,   Byron  follows  Casti  rather  than -^/^y^ J 

Frere.  '^  .,~^  '' ^ 

These  resemblances  in  outward  form  seem  to  indicate 
along  what  lines  Byron  was  affected  by  Frere's  poem.  The 
differences  in  spirit  and  motive  between  the  two  men  are 
indeed  striking.  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants  belongs  unmis- 
takably to  the  burlesque  division  of  satire:  it  is,  said  Frere, 
"the  burlesque  of  ordinary  rude  uninstructed  common 
sense — the  treatment  of  lofty  and  serious  subjects  by  a 
thoroughly  common,  but  not  necessarily  low-minded  man — • 
a  Suffolk  harness  maker." '  The  poem  is,  for  the  most  part, 
satiric  only  in  an  indirect  and  impersonal  way,  and  there  is 
in  it  very  little  straightforward  destructive  criticism,  like 
that  in  English  Bards.  Nor  is  there  any  underlying  bitter- 
ness or  indignation ;  it  would  be  futile  to  seek,  in  these  verses 
so  marked  by  mildness,  geniality,  and  urbanity,  for  any 
purpose  beyond  that  of  jinusing,  in  a  quiet  way,  a  cultivated 
circle  of  friends.  Even  in  the  gossipy  introduction  there  are 
few  allusions  to  current  events,  and  if,  as  has  been  claimed, 
the  knights  of  the  Round  Table  are  intended  to  represent 
prominent  living  personages,  no  one  uninitiated  could  have 
discovered  the  secret.  Frere  himself  said  of  it:  "Most 
people  who  read  it  at  the  time  it  was  published  would  not 
take  the  work  in  a  merely  humorous  sense;  they  would 
imagine  it  was  some  political  satire,  and  went  on  hunting 
for  a  political  meaning."  When  we  recall  that  Byron  spoke 
of  Beppo  as  "being  full  of  political  allusions,"^  we  compre- 
hend the  gap  which  separates  the  two  works. 
^_^  The  real  divergence  between  the  poems — and  it  is  a  wide 
one — is  due,  as  Eichler  intimates,  to  the  characters  of  the 
authors.     Whistlecraft's  words: — 

'  See  Memoir  of  Frere,  i.,  166.  ^  Letters,  iv.,  193. 


126  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"I  'm  strongly  for  the  present  state  of  things: 
I  look  for  no  reform  or  innovation,"' 

summarize  Frere's  conservative  position.  He  was  a  Tory, 
and  Byron  was  a  radical.  Frere  approached  his  theme  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  scholar;  Byron,  from  that  of  a  man  of 
the  world.  The  former,  actuated  by  antiquarian  interest, 
built  up  a  background  in  a  fabulous  age  and  took  his 
characters  from  legend;  the  latter,  urged  by  a  desire  for 
vividness  and  reality,  laid  his  action  in  a  city  which  he 
knew  well  and  placed  his  men  and  women  in  modern  times. 
The  Tristram  and  Gawain  of  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants 
are  puppets  and  abstractions;  Laura  and  the  Count,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  drawn  from  life  and  consequently  seem 
to  throb  with  warmth  and  passion.  There  are  no  women 
in  Frere's  poem  who  receive  more  than  cursory  notice;  in 
Beppo  the  central  figure  is  a  woman,  and  the  atmosphere 
vibrates  with  love  and  intrigue.  One  result  of  these  con- 
trasts is  that  The  Monks,  afid  the  Giants,  unexceptionable  in 
morality,  lacks  charm  and  is  somewhat  chastely  cold;  while 
Beppo,  sensuous  and  frequently  sensual,  is  never  dull.  It 
is  obvious,  then,  that  the  two  poems,  however  much  they 
may  resemble  each  other  superficially,  have  fundamentally 
little  in  common. 

What,  then,  did  Byron  take  from  Frere  to  substantiate 
his  assertion  that  Beppo  is  "in  the  excellent  manner  of  Mr. 
Whistlecraft "  ?  He  may  have  learned  from  him  some  les- 
sons in  the  management  of  the  English  octave,  particularly 
as  employed  in  humorous  verse;  he  probably  accepted  a 
hint  concerning  the  use  of  the  language  of  every-day  life; 
and  he  may  have  drawn  a  suggestion  as  to  the  value  of  the 
colloquial  and  discursive  method .  In  each  of  these  features, 
as  we  have  seen,  he  surpassed  his  predecessor.  Specifically 
in  the  matter  of  direct  satire  he  could  have  gained  little 

'  The  Monks,  ani  the  Giants,  III.,  59. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  127 

from  Frere,  for  the  latter  was  but  a  feeble  satirist.  Eichler 
sums  up  the  logical  conclusion:  "Die  Monks  and  Giants, 
eine  amuesante  Burleske,  haben  in  Beppo  eine  moralische 
Satire  gezeugt."^  The  same  idea  is  brought  out  by  the 
anonymous  writer  of  a  Letter  to  Lord  Byron,  by  John  Bull 
(1820),  in  comparing  Frere's  poem  \\dth  Don  Juan; —  "Mr. 
Frere  writes  elegantly,  playfully,  very  like  a  gentleman, 
and  a  scholar,  and  a  respectable  man,  and  his  poem  never 
sold,  nor  ever  will  sell.  Your  Don  Juan,  again,  is  written 
strongly,  lasciviously,  fiercely,  laughingly — and  accordingly 
the  Don  sells,  and  will  sell,  until  the  end  of  time."  In 
habits  of  mind  and  in  temperament,  Byron  was  more  akin 
to  Frere's  Italian  masters  than  he  was  to  Frere  himself; 
and  therefore,  in  his  knowledge  of  Casti,  later  of  Berni  and 
Pulci,  an#  possibly  of  Ariosto,  Forteguerri,  Tassoni,  and 
Buratti,"we  shall  be  more  likely  to  discover  the  sources  of 
the  spirit  of  Beppo  and  Don  Juan. 

Of  these  men  it  is  probable  that  Giambattista  Casti 
(1721-1804)  is  the  nearest  congener  of  Byron  in  the  satiric 
field.  The  fact  that  his  work  has  never  been  subjected  to 
careful  scrutiny  by  critics  in  either  Italy  or  England 
accounts  possibly  for  the  general  ignoring  of  Casti  as  an 
inspiration  for  Byron's  Italian  satires.  ^  In  spite  of  Eichler's 
positive  statement  that  the  Italians  "aus  zeitlichen  Gruen- 
den"  may  be  neglected  as  sources  for  Byron's  work,^  it  is 
certain  that  Byron  had  read  Casti  before  he  wrote  Beppo; 
for  in  1 8 16  he  said  to  Major  Gordon,  referring  to  a  copy  of 
Casti 's  Novelle  which  the  latter  had  presented  to  him  at 
Brussels:  "I  cannot  tell  you  what  a  treat  your  gift  of 
Casti  has  been  to  me:  I  have  got  him  almost  by  heart.     I 

'  Eichler's  Frere,  184. 

^In  his  Studies  in  Poetry  and  Criticism  (London,  1905),  Churton  Col- 
lins pointed  out  Byron's  indebtedness  to  Casti,  but  mentioned  only 
Casti's  Novelle,     See  Collins's  volume,  pp.  96-98. 

3  Eichler's  Frere,  163. 


128  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST   IN   VERSE 

had  read  his  Animali  Parlanti,  but  I  think  these  Novelle 
much  better.  I  long  to  go  to  Venice  to  see  the  manners  so 
admirably  described."'  Not  until  March  25,  1818,  does 
he  mention  Berni,  and  he  does  not  refer  to  Pulci  until 
November,  18 19.  There  is,  then,  presumptive  evidence  for 
maintaining  that  Byron,  coming  in  18 16  or  before  in  con- 
tact with  the  work  of  Casti,  found  in  him  some  inspiration 
for  the  satiric  method  of  Beppo,  a  method  somewhat  modi- 
fied in  Do7i  Juan  after  a  perusal  of  Berni  and  Pulci. 

The  Novelle,  praised  so  highly  by  Byron,  consist  of 
forty-eight  tales  in  ottava  rima,  printed  together  in 
1804,  although  at  least  eighteen  had  been  completed 
by  1778.  Their  author,  a  sort,  of  itinerant  rhymester,^ 
had  acquired  notoriety  through  his  attacks  on  the  reign- 
ing sovereigns  of  Europe,  especially  on  Catharine  II, 
whom  he  had  assailed  in  //  Poema  Tartaro,  a  realistic 
and  venomous  portrayal  of  Russian  society  and  politics, 
containing  a  violent  assault  on  the  Empress.  Although 
Casti's  poems  are  now  forgotten,  their  vogue  during  his 
lifetime  was  considerable.  His  greatest  work,  Gli  Animali 
Parlanti,  was  translated  into  several  languages,  including 

'  Letters,  iv.,  217. 

*  Born  in  1721  in  Italy,  Casti  had  been  a  precocious  student  at  the 
seminary  of  Montefiascone,  where  he  became  Professor  of  Literature 
at  the  age  of  sixteen.  In  1764  he  moved,  with  the  musician,  Guar- 
ducci,  to  Florence,  where  he  was  created  Poeta  di  Corte  by  the  Grand 
Duke  Leopold.  Here  he  came  to  the  attention  of  Joseph  II.,  who  inN-ited 
him  to  Vienna  and  bestowed  upon  him  several  posts  of  honor.  A  lucky 
friendship  with  Count  Kaunitz  enabled  him  to  visit  most  of  the  capitals 
of  Europe  in  company  with  that  Prime  Minister's  son,  and  he  gained  in 
this  way  an  inside  knowledge  of  court  life  in  several  countries.  In  1 778 
he  took  up  his  residence  in  St.  Petersburg,  where  Catharine  II.  received 
him  cordially.  Later  he  returned  to  Vienna  and  was  crowned  Court 
Poet  by  the  Emperor  Leopold.  The  attraction  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion drew  him  to  Paris  in  1796,  where  he  Uved  until  his  death,  February 
16,  1804. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I29 

English,  and  Casti,  as  an  apostle  of  revolt,  was  recognized 
as  energetic  and  dangerous.  His  coarseness  and  vulgarity, 
however,  combined  with  his  slovenly  verse  structure  and 
his  neglect  of  art,  prevented  him  from  reaching  a  high  posi- 
tion as  a  poet,  and  his  literary  importance  was  thus  only 
temporary,  occasioned  principally  by  the  popular  interest 
in  his  timely  satiric  allusions.  He,  like  Byron,  was  at  heart 
a  rebel,  and  in  his  own  uncultivated  way,  he  anticipated  the 
spirit  of  the  English  poet.  Indeed  it  is  curious  how  often 
the  two  pursue  the  same  general  plan  of  attack  on  their 
respective  ages. 

The  Novelle  Amorose  are  verse  tales  of  the  type  which 
Boccaccio,  and  after  him,  Bandello,  Straparola,  and  their 
imitators,  had  made  popular  in  prose.  Dealing  in  a  laugh- 
ing and  lenient  fashion  with  the  indiscretions  of  gallants, 
usually  monks  and  priests,  they  are  marred  by  grossness 
and  indecency  in  plot  and  language.  The  cynical  immor- 
ality of  the  stories  has  subjected  Casti  to  much  unfavorable 
criticism.  Foscolo,  his  countryman,  speaks  of  him  as 
"spitting  his  venom  at  virtue  and  religion,  as  the  sole 
expedient  by  which  he  can  palliate  his  own  immorality."^ 
However,  the  coarse  tone  of  the  Novelle  is  hardly  unique 
with  Casti;  he  is  merely  adhering  to  the  standard  of  the 
earlier  prose  novelists. 

The  likeness  between  Beppo,  which  is  an  English  novella 
in  verse,  and  some  of  Casti's  Novelle,  is  one  in  manner  and 
spirit  rather  than  in  plot  and  style.  ^     Byron's  story,  taken 

'  Quarterly  Review,  April,  18 19. 

'  Churton  Collins,  however,  makes  the  statement  that  "Don  Juan 
is  full  of  reminiscences  of  the  Novelle,"  and  points  out  definite  parallel- 
isms between  Novella  IV.,  La  Diavolessa,  and  the  plot  of  Don  Juan. 
He  adds:  "To  Casti,  then,  undoubtedly  belongs  the  honour  of  having 
suggested  and  furnished  Byron  with  a  model  for  Don  Juan."  {Studies 
in  Poetry  and  Criticism,  pp.  97-98.)  It  seems  probable,  however,  that 
Byron  took  even  more  from  //  Poema  Tartaro  than  he  did  from  the 


130  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

as  it  was  from  an  episode  with  which  he  had  met  in  his  own 
experience,  has  no  exact  parallel  in  Casti's  collection,  but 
his  method  of  handling  it  is  not  unlike  that  followed  by  the 
Italian  in  treating  of  themes  not  greatly  dissimilar.  Choos- 
ing practically  at  random  among  the  Novelle — for  Casti's 
plan  was  much  the  same  in  all — we  may  discover  certain 
peculiarities  which  have  their  counterparts  in  Beppo. 
Novella  IX,  Lo  Spirito,  has,  like  Beppo,  a  humorous  intro- 
duction, in  which  the  narrator,  speaking,  like  Byron,  in  the 
first  person,  analyzes  what  is  meant  by  "spirit"  in  man  or 
woman.  He  then  proceeds  with  the  adventure  of  the  Lady 
Amalia  and  her  two  lovers,  describing  each  of  the  three  in  a 
rather  clever  character  sketch,  not  unlike  the  pictures 
which  Byron  gives  of  Laura  and  the  Count.  The  rival 
suitors  pursue  different  tactics  in  their  struggles  to  win  the 
lady's  favors  and  in  dwelling  on  their  actions,  Casti  often 
pauses  to  indulge  in  a  chuckling  aside  to  the  reader,  never  so 
long  continued  as  Byron's  digressions,  but  in  very  much  the 
same  vein.  Finally  one  of  the  wooers  meets  with  success, 
and  the  tale  concludes  with  a  bantering  moral. 

Doubtless  this  summary  of  Lo  Spirito  fails  to  bring  out 
any  convincing  parallelisms  between  it  and  Beppo;  and  it 
must  be  granted  at  once  that  the  alleged  relationship  is 
somewhat  elusive.  But  there  are  some  features  common  to 
the  two  poems:  an  easy-going  tolerance  towards  gallantry 
and  the  social  vices;  a  pretence  of  taking  the  reader  into 
the  author's  confidence;  a  general  lack  of  formality  and 
rigidity  in  stanza  structure;  and  a  witty  and  burlesque 
manner  of  turning  phrases.  Although  one  or  two  of  these 
characteristics  had  appeared  singly  in  Byron's  work  before 
1818,  they  had  appeared  in  conjunction  in  no  poem  of  his 
previous   to  Beppo,   with   the   possible   exception   of   The 

Novelle.  Casti's  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  and  II  Poema  Tartaro  are  not 
mentioned  in  Collins's  study. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I3I 

DeviVs  Drive,  which  was  not  in  ottava  rima.  Obviously 
he  could  not  have  learned  the  secret  of  this  new  mood  from 
Frere.  Thus,  when  we  consider  that  until  Byron's  acquain- 
tance with  Casti's  work,  this  specific  quality  of  mockery  had 
not  existed  in  his  satire,  we  have  reason  for  thinking  that 
he  was  indebted  to  some  extent  to  the  Italian  poet.  Some- 
how the  English  writer,  once  a  pretended  defender  of  clean 
morals,  began  to  take  a  tolerant  attitude  towards  lapses 
from  virtue ;  he  changed  from  formal  and  dignified  discourse 
to  a  style  easy  and  colloquial ;  and  he  partly  abandoned  | 
savage  invective  for  scornful  and  ironic  mockery.  In  Beppo 
we  realize  the  full  purport  of  the  transformation  which  had  ' 
been  taking  place  in  Byron's  satiric  mood  ever  since  his 
return  from  Greece.  Credit  for  this  development  must  be 
given  partly  to  Moore  and  partly  to  Frere;  but  it  must  be 
assigned  even  more  to  Casti,  who  first  put  Byron  in  touch 
directly  with  the  Italian  burlesque  spirit. 

If  only  the  Novelle  were  considered,  however,  Byron's 
obligation  to  Casti  would  be  confined  chiefly  to  J3eppo,  for 
in  his  tales  the  Italian  seldom  leaves  his  theme,  as  Byron 
does  in  Don  Juan,  to  assail  individuals  or  institutions.  He 
touches  lightly  on  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature,  on  the 
frailties  and  illicit  indulgences  of  full-blooded  men  and 
women,  but  he  is  swayed  by  no  impelling  purpose,  and  he 
wants  the  fundamental  seriousness  of  the  genuine  satirist. 
Byron,  on  the  other  hand,  in  Beppo,  and  still  more  in  Don 
Juan,  never  quite  forgot  the  vituperative  vigor  which  he 
had  shown  in  English  Bards. 

But  before  he  had  seen  the  Novelle,  Byron  had  read  Gli 
Animali  Parlanti,  a  mammoth  work  which,  in  its  scope,  in 
its  antipathies,  and  in  its  manner,  has  some  likeness  to  Don 
Juan.  Published  first  in  Paris  in  1802,  it  was  pirated  in  a 
London  edition  a  year  later,  and  before  long  had  been  trans- 
lated into  several  languages.  An  English  version  in  a 
greatly  abridged  paraphrase  appeared  in   18 16  under  the 


132  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

title  The  Court  of  Beasts,  in  seven  cantos,  without  the  trans- 
lator's name. '  The  same  volume,  with  revisions  and  addi- 
tions, was  reprinted  in  1819  as  The  Court  and  Parliament  of 
Beasts, — freely  translated,  by  Wm.  St.  Rose. 

The  Italian  poem  in  three  parts  and  twenty-six  cantos 
is  written,  not,  as  has  been  often  taken  for  granted,  in  the 
ottava  rima,  but  in  the  less  common  sesta  rima,  a  stanza 
of  six  endecasyllabic  lines,  rhyming  ababcc.  As  its  title 
suggests,  it  is  a  beast  epic,  an  elaboration  of  the  fables 
of  iEsop  and  La  Fontaine ;  but  the  allegory  veils  deliberate 
and  continuous  satire.  In  his  prose  preface,  Casti  explains 
his  object  as  being  the  presentation,  with  talking  animals 
as  actors,  of  "un  quadro  generale  delle  costumanze,  delle 
opinioni,  e  dei  pregiudizi  dal  pubblico  adottati,  riguardo  al 
govemo,  air  amministrazione  ed  alia  politica  degli  Stati, 
come  delle  passioni  dominanti  di  coloro,  che  in  certe  emi- 
nenti  e  pubbliche  situazioni  collocati  si  trovano,  colorandolo 
con  tinte  forti,  ed  alquanto  caricate,  le  quali  facilmente 
ne  relevino  I'expressione — un  quadro  in  somma  della  cosa, 
e  non  delle  persone."  Casti,  then,  planned  a  comprehen- 
sive satire  on  his  own  age,  and  despite  his  assertion  that  his 
poem  is  "a  picture  of  things,  and  not  of  persons,"  his  real 
object  was,  like  Byron's,  to  "play  upon  the  surface  of 
humanity." 

The  actual  plot  of  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  may  be  briefly 
told.  The  animals  gather  to  organize  a  scheme  of  govern- 
ment, and,  deciding  on  an  hereditary  monarchy,  choose  the 
lion  for  their  king.  At  his  death,  a  regency,  headed  by  the 
lioness,  is  established  for  his  son,  and  conspiracy  and  cor- 
ruption develop.  The  dog,  the  first  Prime  Minister,  is 
superseded  by  the  wolf,  and  becomes  a  rebel.  Civil  war 
ensues,  and  when,  at  length,  all  the  conflicting  parties  unite 

'  To  this  work  Byron  refers  in  a  letter  to  Murray,  March  25,  1818: 
"Rose's  Animali  I  never  saw  till  a  few  days  ago, — they  are  excellent." 
{Letters,  iv.,  217.) 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  133 

for  a  conference,  they  are  destroyed  by  a  terrible  storm. 
This,  of  course,  is  the  barest  outline  of  the  story ;  the  frame- 
work is  filled  out  by  argument  and  criticism  by  the  various 
protagonists,  many  of  whom,  notably  the  dog,  the  horse, 
and  the  bear,  represent  political  factions,  conservative, 
moderate,  and  progressive.  No  small  amount  of  satire 
lies  in  the  actions  and  speeches  of  the  beasts,  who  are 
intended  to  represent  different  types  of  humanity;  their 
court  is  a  mirror  of  the  courts  of  western  Europe,  and  the 
abuses  which  pervade  it  are  those  which  Casti  had  seen  on 
his  travels.  The  animals  are,  in  all  save  external  appear- 
ances, like  men. 

Not  enough  of  a  reformer  to  evolve  remedies,  Casti  was, 
nevertheless,  alert  in  detecting  faults  in  the  inert  institutions 
of  his  time  and  daring  in  his  methods  of  assailing  them. 
His  poem,  thus,  is  a  hostile  picture  of  politics  and  society  in 
the  Europe  of  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
painted  by  a  man  who  had  studied  his  subject  from  a  cos- 
mopolitan standpoint.  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  is  a  radical 
document,  designed  to  expose  the  flaws  in  existing  systems. 
Even  fads  and  foibles  are  not  beneath  its  notice.  It  jeers 
at  the  academies  so  popular  in  Italy  in  Casti's  youth, 
especially  the  notorious  Accademia  dell'  Arcadia^;  it  makes 
sport  of  pedants  and  antiquaries^;  it  scorns  literary  and  po- 
litical sycophants^;  it  is  bitter  against  theological  quibbles, 
against  monks, "*  and  against  superstitious  practices.^ 
Throughout  it  all  runs  Casti's  hatred  of  despotism,  and  his 
dislike  of  hypocrisy  and  cant.  It  is  not,  indeed,  unfair  to 
Byron  to  declare  that  the  scope  of  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  is, 
in  some  respects,  as  broad  and  comprehensive  as  that  of 
Don  Juan. 

It  is  interesting,  as  far  as  the  material  of  Casti's  poem  is 
concerned,  to  notice  that  Casti  is  an  advocate  of  what  were 

'  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  VII.,  6  flf.  ^  Ihid.,  III.,  37. 

3  Ihtd.,  III.,  32.       1 1Md.,  XX.,  69.     5  Ihid.,  XIV.,  47;  XVII.,  36,  56. 


134  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

to  be  some  of  Byron's  pet  theories.  For  both  men  liberty 
is  a  favorite  watchword.  The  horse,  who  seems  to  be  spokes- 
man for  Casti  himself,  cries  out, 

"Noi  d'ogni  giogo  pria  liberi,  e  sciolti,"' 

an  assertion  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  Byron's  words, 

"I  wish  men  to  be  free 
As  much  from  mobs  as  kings — from  you  as  me."^ 

A  similar  mood  led  them  both  to  lay  an  emphasis  on  the 
seamy  and  gruesome  side  of  war.  and  to  condemn  it  as 
unnecessary  and  degrading.  Casti,  after  picturing  all  the 
horrors  of  a  battle-field,  exclaims, 

"  Crudelissime  bestie!     O  bestie  nate 
Per  lo  sterminio  della  vostra  spezie."^ 

This  is  in  the  same  tone  as  Byron's  remark  about  the 
futility  of  war: 

"Oh,  glorious  laurel!  since  for  one  sole  leaf 
Of  thine  imaginary  deathless  tree. 
Of  blood  and  tears  must  flow  the  unending  sea."* 

Again  and  again  in  the  two  poems  we  meet  with  marked 
coincidences  in  the  manifestations  of  the  revolt  of  the  two 
poets  against  the  laws  and  customs  of  their  respective 
periods. 

Don  Juan,  moreover,  has  many  of  the  peculiar  methods 
which,  partly  the  product  of  tradition  in  Itahan  burlesque 
poetry,  and  occasionally  the  idiosyncrasies  of  Casti  himself, 

'  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  I.,  52.  ^  Don  Juan,  X.,  25. 

3  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  XVIII.,  33.  <  Don  Juan  VII.,  68. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  135 

are  used  regularly  in  Gli  Animali  Parlanti.  Casti,  for 
instance,  protests  continually  in  humorous  fashion  that 
he  is  dealing  only  with  facts: 

"Poeta  son  io,  non  son  causidico, 
E  mio  difetto  h  sol  d'esser  veridico."' 

His  unfailing  insistence  on  this  point  gives  his  repeated 
professions  an  air  of  stock  conventionality.  Byron  also 
employs  this  mocking  manner  of  calling  attention  to  the 
verisimilitude  of  his  own  work: 

"My  muse  by  no  means  deals  in  fiction ; 
She  gathers  a  repertory  of  facts.  "^ 

More  significant,  perhaps,  is  the  colloquial  tone  which  Casti 
habitually  adopts  towards  his  readers,  turning  to  them  con- 
stantly to  speak  about  himself,  his  plans,  and  his  difficulties, 
sometimes  to  apologize,  sometimes  to  make  a  confession : — 

"M'attengo  a  cio  che  tocco,  a  cio  che  vedo, 
Ne  mi  diverto  a  far  castella  in  aria."^ 

This  sort  of  intimate  gossip  is  also  characteristic  of  Don 
Juan;  indeed  Byron  has  elucidated  his  theory  of  procedure: 

"I  rattle  on  exactly  as  I  'd  talk 
With  anybody  in  a  ride  or  walk."'* 

At  the  end  of  cantos  this  affectation  of  taking  the  public 
into  confidence  often  becomes  in  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  a 

'  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  IV.,  13. 

^  Don  Juan,  XIV.,  13.  See  also  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  X.,  i ;  XVIII., 
32,  and  Don  Juan,  VII.,  26,  41 ;  VIII.,  124. 

3  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  IV.,  73. 

■•  Don  Juan,  XV.,  19.  See  also  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  III.,  95;  VII.,  38; 
Don  Juan,  VI.,  8;  VIII.,  89;  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  34. 


136  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

kind  of  sham  humility,  coupled  usually  with  the  poet's 
promise  to  return  another  day,  if  encouraged.  Thus  Casti 
closes  a  canto  in  this  fashion : 

"Ma  spossatello  omai  mi  sento  e  roco, 
Ne  in  grado  piii  proseguire  il  canto, 
Permettetemi  dunque,  almen  per  poco, 
Ch'io  prenda  fiato,  e  mi  riposi  alquanto. 
Che  poi,  qualor  vi  piaccia,  io  sard  pronto 
A  riprendere  il  fil  del  mio  racconto."^ 

There  is  space  for  quoting  only  one  of  several  similar  endings 
from  Do?i  Juan: 

"But,  for  the  present,  gentle  reader!  and 
Still  gentler  purchaser!  the  Bard — that  's  I — 
Must,  with  your  permission,  shake  you  by  the  hand, 
And  so — 'your  humble  servant,  and  Good-bye!'"* 

These  asides  recall  the  personal  paragraphs  and  short  essays 
which  Fielding,  and  after  him,  Thackeray,  were  accustomed 
to  insert  in  their  novels.  Their  importance  in  Don  Juan 
cannot  be  overestimated,  for,  as  it  will  be  necessary  to 
emphasize  later,  the  satiric  element  in  that  poem  is  brought 
out  chiefly  through  these  digressions,  in  which  the  author 
gives  free  vent  to  his  personality.  Some  traces  of  this 
method  had  appeared  even  in  the  first  two  cantos  of  Childe 
Harold^;  and,  to  some  degree,  it  had  been  utilized  in  several 
of  Byron's  short  verse  epistles  to  friends.     However  the 

'  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  IV.,  107. 

»  Don  Juan,  I.,  231.  See  also  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  XX.,  126,  and  Don 
Juan,  IV.,  117;  v.,  159;  VI.,  120;  VII.,  35;  IX.,  85;  XV.,  98. 

3  In  Childe  Harold  the  digression  had  been  used,  not  for  satire,  but 
for  personal  reminiscences,  eulogy,  and  philosophical  meditation;  see 
Canto  I.,  91-92,  with  its  tribute  to  Wingfield,  and  Canto  I.,  93,  with  its 
promise  of  another  canto  to  come. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  137 

discursive  style  is  not  common  in  the  poet's  work  before 
Beppo,  and  after  that,  at  least  in  his  satires,  it  comes  to 
be  conspicuous.  Even  Frere,  familiar  as  he  was  with  the 
ItaHans,  did  not  realize  the  full  value  of  the  digression  until 
he  wrote  the  last  two  cantos  of  The  Monks  and  the  Giants, 
and,  moreover,  he  never  used  it  as  an  instrument  for  satire. 
It  is,  therefore,  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Byron  found  a 
pattern  for  his  procedure  in  the  burlesque  writers  themselves 
and  particularly  in  Casti.  There  are,  however,  some  vari- 
ations in  B^'ron's  employment  of  this  device.  He  extended 
the  colloquial  aside  until  it  verged  almost  into  a  prolonged 
monologue  or  satirical  sermon;  and  whereas  Casti,  in  Gli 
Animali  Parian ti,  seldom  made  use  of  the  digression  as  an 
opportunity  for  personal  satire,  Byron  improved  the  chance 
to  speak  out  directly,  in  the  first  person,  against  his  enemies. 
Casti  advanced  his  destructive  criticism  largely  through  his 
narrative,  by  allusion,  insinuation,  and  irony,  in  a  manner 
quite  indirect,  keeping  himself,  as  far  as  open  satire  was 
concerned,  very  much  in  the  background.  In  Don  Juan, 
on  the  contrary,  as  the  poem  lengthened  into  the  later  can- 
tos, Byron  tended  more  and  more  to  neglect  the  plot  and 
to  reveal  himself  as  a  commentator  on  life. 

In  many  respects,  Casti's  third  poem,  //  Poema  Tartaro, 
which  has  never  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  Byron 
and  which  was  never  referred  to  by  the  English  poet,  is  even 
more  closely  akin  than  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  to  Don  Juan. 
It  is  possible  that  it  may  have  offered  a  suggestion  for  a 
portion  of  the  plot  oiDon  Juan — the  episode  of  Catharine  11. 
It  shows  Casti  speaking,  for  once,  directly  against  great 
personages,  bestowing  upon  them  fictitious  titles,  but  not 
at  any  pains  to  conceal  the  significance  of  his  allusions.  As 
II  Poema  Tartaro  is  little  known,  it  is  essential  to  dwell 
somewhat  upon  its  plot  and  general  character. 

The  poem,  which  is  made  up  of  twelve  cantos  in  ottava 
rima,  treats  mainly  of  the  Russia  of  the  Empress  Catharine 


138  LORD   BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IX   VERSE 

II.  Most  of  the  important  actors  are  historical  figures, 
disguised  under  pseudonyms:  thus  Catharine  is  called 
Cattuna  or  Turrachina;  Potemkin,  her  famous  minister,  is 
Toto;  and  Joseph  II,  who  receives  his  share  of  adulation,  is 
Orenzebbe.  No  one  of  these  characters  is  drawn  with  any 
effort  at  secrecy;  indeed,  in  most  editions,  a  complete  key  is 
provided. 

In  its  chief  features  the  narrative  element  of  //  Poema 
Tar  tar  0  is  not  unlike  that  of  some  sections  of  Don  Juan. 
The  hero,  a  wandering  Irishman,  Tomasso  Scardassale,  like 
Juan  a  child  of  pleasure  and  fortune  unembarrassed  by  moral 
convictions,  joins  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.  Even- 
tually he  is  captured  by  the  infidels,  falls  into  the  hands  of 
the  Caliph  of  Bagdad,  and  while  a  prisoner  at  his  court, 
engages  in  a  liaison  with  Zelmira,  a  member  of  the  harem. 
An  appointment  to  the  office  of  Chief  Eunuch  having  been 
forced  upon  him,  he  flees  with  his  inamorata  and,  after 
some  escapades,  arrives  at  St.  Petersburg,  where  he  has  the 
good  luck  to  please  the  Empress.  Soon,  without  any  mani- 
fest reluctance  on  his  part,  he  occupies  the  position  of 
official  favorite,  is  loaded  with  money  and  honors,  and 
becomes,  for  a  time,  the  second  highest  personage  in  the 
realm.  After  various  incidents,  including  a  rebellion 
against  the  empress  suppressed  only  with  difficulty,  and 
visits  of  many  contemporary  monarchs  to  the  capital, 
Potemkin,  Catharine's  former  lover,  jealous  of  Tomasso's 
rise  to  power,  succeeds  in  bringing  about  his  downfall,  and 
the  discarded  Irishman,  suffering  the  usual  penalty  of  the 
Empress's  caprices,  is  exiled  to  a  far  comer  of  Russia.  At 
this  point,  Casti's  poem,  becoming  prophetic,  diverges 
entirely  from  history.  There  is  an  uprising  led  by  the 
Grand  Duke;  Catharine  and  Potemkin  are  seized  and  ban- 
ished; and  the  Grand  Duke  is  declared  emperor.  Some- 
what dramatically  the  poet  describes  the  meeting  between 
the  dethroned  Catharine  and  Tomasso.     Finally  the  latter, 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  139 

recalled  to  St.  Petersburg,  dies  in  the  arms  of  his  earlier  love, 
Zclmira,  and  is  buried  with  elaborate  ceremony. 

The  Catharine  II  episode  in  Do7i  Juan  begins  with  Canto 
IX, 42,  and  ends  with  Canto  X,  48.  That,  there  is' a  super- 
ficial resemblance  between  the  adventures  of  the  two  heroes, 
Tomasso  and  Juan,  is  sufficiently  obvious.  Both  are 
modem  picaresque  knights  at  the  sport  of  circumstances. 
Each  comes  to  St.  Petersburg  from  Turkey,  bringing  with 
him  a  Turkish  girl;  each  is  installed  as  a  favorite  at  the 
court  and  attains,  at  one  bound,  nobility  and  riches;  each 
falls  from  his  lofty  state,  and  is  sent  away.  It  is  evident,  of 
course,  that  Byron  in  no  sense  borrowed  from  Casti's  plot 
as  he  did  from  other  writers  in  his  description  of  the  ship- 
wreck. However,  since  Casti's  poem  is  probably  the  only 
one  of  the  period  dealing  with  the  court  of  Catharine  II, 
and  since  Byron  was  well  acquainted  with  the  other  two 
long  works  of  the  Italian,  there  are  grounds  for  surmising 
that  he  took  //  Poema  Tartaro,  in  its  general  scheme,  as  a 
model  for  a  part  of  Don  Juan. 

This  supposition  is  strengthened  by  some  resemblances 
in  details  between  the  two  poems.  Catharine  II  is  por- 
tra\^ed  by  both  authors  in  much  the  same  way.  Casti  says 
of  her  that, 

"Per  uso  e  per  natura 
Ne'  servigi  d'amor  troppo  esigea,"^ 

and  Byron  echoes  precisely  the  same  idea: 

"She  could  repay  each  amatory  look  you  lent 
With  interest,  and,  in  turn,  was  wont  with  rigor 
To  exact  of  Cupid's  bills  the  full  amount 
At  sight,  nor  would  permit  you  to  discount."^ 

She  is  generous  to  her  favorites :  Casti  makes  her  confess, 
'  //  Poema  Tartaro,  II.,  8.  ^  Don  Juan,  IX.,  62. 


140  LORD  BYRON    AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"Amare  e  premiar  Tamato  ogetto 
Sole  h  per  me  felicita  e  diletto,"* 

And  Byron  refers  particularly  to  her  Kindness: 

"Love  had  made  Catharine  make  each  lover's  fortune."^ 

Tomasso  himself  is  described  in  language  which  might  apply 
to  Juan : 

"Era  grande  e  bel  giovine, — 
Forte,  complesso,  capel  biondo,  e  un  paio 
D'occhi  di  nobilita  pieni  e  di  fuoco; 
Un  carattere  franco,  un  umor  gaio, 
E  colle  donne  avea  sempre  un  buon  giucco."^ 

The  scene  in  which  Tomasso  has  just  been  especially 
favored  by  the  Empress  and  is  receiving  congratulations 
from  courtiers  is  paralleled  by  that  in  which  Juan  is  being 
flattered  after  a  warm  greeting  by  Catharine.''  Another 
curious  coincidence  occurs  in  the  efforts  of  the  court  phy- 
sician to  cure  the  apparent  debility  of  Tomasso  and  Juan.^ 
These  similarities  are  striking  enough  to  furnish  some 
probability  that  Byron  was  familiar  with  the  plot  of  // 
Poema  Tartaro,  and,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  repro- 
duced some  of  its  features  in  Don  Juan. 

Casti's  satire  in  this  poem,  as  in  Gli  Animali  Parlanti,  is 
comprehensive.  Like  Byron,  he  ridicules  the  Russian 
language,*  attacks  literary  fads,  criticises  customs-duties,' 

'  II  Poema  Tartaro,  IV.,  76. 

*  Don  Juan,  IX.,  81.     See  also  Don  Juan,  IX.,  80. 
3  //  Poema  Tartaro,  I.,  5. 

*  See  //  Poema  Tartaro,  IV.,  54-55,  and  Don  Juan,  IX.,  82. 
s  See  II  Poema  Tartaro,  V.,  32  ff.,  and  Don  Juan,  X.,  39. 

«  See  II  Poema  Tartaro,  VIII.,  85,  and  Don  Juan,  VII.,  14-15. 
'  See  II  Poema  Tartaro,  III.,  81,  and  Don  Juan,  III.,  20;  X.,  69. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I4I 

and  enters  into  a  vigorous  denunciation  of  war.  In  speak- 
ing of  soldiers  who  clash  in  civil  strife,  he  says,  with  bitter 
truth : 

"Non  e  nobil  coraggio  e  valor  vero 
Con  queste  schiere  e  quello  incontro  mena, 
Ma  I'impunito  di  ladron  mestiero 
Cui  legge  alcuna,  alcun  poter  non  frena."' 

Byron  makes  a  charge  of  the  same  kind  in  portraying  mer- 
cenary warriors  as, 

"Not  fighting  for  their  country  or  its  crown. 
But  wishing  to  be  one  day  brigadiers ; 
Also  to  have  the  sacking  of  a  town."^ 

The  whole  of  Canto  VI  in  //  Poema  Tartaro  may  be  com- 
pared with  Byron's  description  of  the  siege  of  Ismail  in  Don 
Juan,  VII  and  VIII.  Both  scenes  are  presented  with  grim 
and  graphic  realism,  without  any  softening  of  the  horrors 
and  disgusting  incidents  of  warfare. 

In  II  Poema  Tartaro,  more  than  in  his  other  productions, 
Casti  ventured  to  resort  to  genuine  personal  satire.  He 
assailed  not  only  Catharine,  but  also  Potemkin,  Prince 
Henry  of  Prussia,  Gustavus  III  of  Sweden,  the  Sultan  of 
Egypt,  and  the  king  of  Denmark,  to  mention  only  figures 
who  have  a  prominent  place  in  history.  His  method  being 
still  usually  indirect  and  dramatic,  Casti  seldom  lets  him- 
self appear  as  accuser,  but  puts  criticism  of  these  sovereigns 
into  the  mouths  of  his  characters,  especially  Tomasso's 
friend,  Siveno,  who  acts  as  the  favorite's  mentor  and  guide. 
A  whole  race  may  arouse  Casti's  anger — 

"Contro  il  mogol  superbo.  e  vile 
Mi  sento  in  sen  esaltar  la  bile" — 

^7/  Poema  Tartaro,  VI.,  98.,  ^  Don  Juan,  VII.,  18. 


142  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

but  he  is  too  wise  to  let  himself  be  entangled  in  any  contro- 
versy. This  discretion  does  not,  necessarily,  imply  coward- 
ice or  fear,  for  his  indirect  attacks  are  often  as  malignant 
as  any  of  Byron's  more  direct  invectives,  and  their  victims 
cannot  be  mistaken.  Byron,  however,  always  wished  to 
meet  his  enemies  face  to  face,  while  Casti  preferred  to  reach 
his  in  a  less  open  way. 

In  general,  the  methods  employed  in  //  Poema  Tartaro 
are  those  used  in  Gli  A  nimali  Parlalti.  There  are  the  same 
short  digressions,  illustrated  in  such  passages  as, 

"Cio  di  Toto  piccar  dovea  la  boria 
E  con  ragion;  ma  proseguiam  la  storia,"' 

in  which  the  author  pulls  himself  away  in  order  to  continue 
his  narrative,  and  which  have  frequently  almost  the  same 
phraseology  as  Byron's  "Return  w^e  to  our  story."  Some- 
times the  digressions  take  the  form  of  philosophical  reflec- 
tions on  various  abstract  subjects  such  as  death,  mutability, 
or  love : 

"Amor,  la  bella  passion  che  i  petti 
Empie  si  soavissima  dolcezza."^ 

We  meet  often  with  the  familiar  insistence  on  the  veracious 
character  of  the  author's  writing.^  Irony  occurs  intermit- 
tently, mingled  at  times  with  sarcasm. 

One  peculiarity  of  Casti 's  manner  deserves  particular 
attention,  although  it  is  not  unique  with  him  and  is  derived 
originally  from  the  earlier  burlesque  poets.  This  is  his 
habit  of  shifting  the  mood  from  the  serious  to  the  ludicrous 
by  the  use  of  unexpected  phrases.  Examples  of  this  sudden 
turn  in  thought  are  numerous  in  //  Poema  Tartaro.      When 

'  //  Poema  Tartaro,  VIII.,  12.  ="  Ibid.,  III.,  68. 

3  Ibid.,  IV.,  69. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  143 

the  report  of  rebellion  arrives  at  the  Russian  court,  the 
description  of  terrible  alarm  ends  with  the  couplet, 

"Costemata  e  la  corte  epicurea 
E  venne  a  Toctabei  la  diarrea."^ 

The  exiled  Empress,  coming  upon  her  old  favorite,  Tomasso, 
cries, 

"Ah,  non  m'inganno  no,  quegli  e  Tomasso 
Mel  dice  il  core  e  lo  cognosco  al  naso."^ 

No  reader  of  Don  Juan  needs  to  be  reminded  how  often 
Byron  cuts  short  a  sentimental  passage  with  a  remark  which 
makes  the  entire  situation  ridiculous.  The  secret  of  this 
continual  interplay  between  gravity  and  absurdity  had 
never  been  mastered  by  Frere ;  undoubtedly  it  is  one  of  the 
tricks  for  which  Byron  was  particularly  indebted  to  Casti 
and  to  Casti's  predecessors,  Pulci  and  Berni. 

Casti 's  style  and  language  is  usually  fiat  and  insipid, 
im distinguished  by  beauty  or  rhythm.  "His  diction,"  says 
Foscolo,  "is  without  grace  or  purity."  He  is  often  coarse 
and  unnecessarily  obscene.  These  considerations  make  it 
improbable  that  Byron  could  have  been  affected  by  Casti's 
poetic  style,  for,  despite  the  sensuousness  of  some  portions 
of  Don  Juan,  the  English  poet  rarely  allowed  himself  to 
sink  into  the  positive  indecencies  so  common  in  Casti's 
work. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  two  men  are  united  by  their  aims 
and  motives.  With  all  that  is  petty  and  offensive  in  Casti's 
satire,  there  is  mingled  a  real  love  of  liberty  and  an  unswerv- 
ing hatred  of  despotism.  No  other  poet  in  English  or  Ital- 
ian literature  of  the  latter  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth 
centuries  attempted  an  indictment  of  his  age,  at  once  so 

'  II  Poema  Tariaro,  VI.,  47.  ^  Ibid.,  XII.,  79. 


144  LORD   BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST   IN   VERSE 

hostile  and  so  comprehensive  as  those  which  Casti  and 
Byron  tried  to  make.  More  significant  still,  Casti,  unlike 
Pulci,  Berni,  and  Frere,  was  modern  in  spirit,  and  played 
with  vital  questions  in  society  and  government.  He  was 
close  to  Byron's  own  epoch,  and  the  objects  of  his  wrath,  as 
far  as  systems  and  institutions  are  concerned,  were  the 
objects  of  Byron's  satire.  Up  to  a  certain  point,  too,  Byron 
followed  Casti's  methods:  he  is  colloquial,  discursive,  and 
gossipy;  he  cares  little  for  plot  structure;  he  employs  irony 
and  mockery,  as  well  as  invective ;  and  he  skips,  in  a  single 
stanza,  from  seriousness  to  absurdity.  The  differences  be- 
tween the  two  poets  are  to  be  attributed  chiefly  to  the 
Englishman's  genius  and  powerful  personality.  He  was 
more  of  an  egotist  than  Casti,  more  vehement,  more 
straightforward,  more  impulsive,  and  was  able  to  fill  Don 
Juan  with  his  individuality  as  Casti  was  never  able  to  do 
with  Gli  Animali  Parlanti  and  II  Poema  Tartar o. 

Certain  facts  in  the  relationship  between  Casti  and  Byron 
seem,  then,  to  be  clear.  At  a  period  before  the  composition 
of  Beppo,  Byron  had  read  and  enjoyed  in  the  original 
Italian,  the  Novelle  and  Gli  Animali  Parlanti.  Numerous 
features  in  Beppo  and  Don  Juan  which  resemble  charac- 
teristics of  Casti's  poems  had,  apparently,  existed  combined 
in  no  English  work  before  Byron's  time.  In  addition,  inter- 
nal evidence  makes  it  a  possibility  that  Byron  was  familiar 
with  //  Poema  Tartaro,  and  that  he  borrowed  from  it  some- 
thing of  its  material  and  its  spirit.  The  probability  is  that 
Byron  was  influenced,  to  an  extent  greater  than  has  been 
ordinarily  supposed,  by  the  example  and  the  methods  of 
Casti. 

Byron's  acquaintance  with  Pulci  and  Berni  did  not, 
apparently,  begin  until  after  the  publicatidn  of  Beppo.  On 
March  25,  1818,  he  wrote  Murray,  in  speaking  of  Beppo: 
"  Berni  is  the  original  of  all — Berni  is  the  father  of  that  kind 
of  writing,  which,  I  think,  suits  our  language,  too,  very 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  145 

well."'  On  February  21,  1820,  while  he  was  busy  with  his 
translation  of  Pulci's  Morgante  Maggiore,  he  said  of  Pulci's 
poem,  to  Murray:  "It  is  the  parent,  not  only  of  Whistle- 
craft,  but  of  all  jocose  Italian  poetry."^  These  assertions 
indicate  that  B>Ton  classed  Beppo  and  Don  Juan  with  the 
work  of  the  Italian  burlesque  writers,  eventually  coming 
to  recognize  Pulci  as  the  founder  of  the  school. 

Luigi  Pulci  (1432- 1 484),  a  member  of  the  literary  circle 
which  gathered  at  the  court  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  stx/wnth  century  and  which  included, 
among  others,  Poliziano,  Ficino,  and  Michelangelo,  com- 
posed the  Morgante  Maggiore,  "the  first  romantic  poem  of 
the  Renaissance."  Designed  probably  to  be  read  or  recited 
at  Lorenzo's  table,  it  was  finally  completed  in  February, 
1483,  as  a  poem  in  ottava  rima,  containing  twenty-eight 
cantos  and  some  30,000  lines.  ^  Although  the  plotting  and 
consimimation  of  Gan's  treason  against  Charlemagne  lends 
a  crude  unity  to  the  romance,  it  is  actually  a  series  of  bat- 
tles, combats,  and  marvellous  adventures  loosely  strung 
together.  The  titular  hero,  Morgante,  dies  in  the  twentieth 
canto.  The  matter^is  that  of  the  Carolingian  legend,  now  so 
well-known  in  the  work  of  Pulci's  successors. 

Historically,  as  the  precursor  of  Berni,  Ariosto,  and  the 
other  singers  of  Carolingian  romance,  Pulci  occupies  the 
position  of  pioneer.  For  our  purposes,  however,  the  signi- 
ficance of  his  work  lies  less  in  the  incidents  of  his  narra- 
tive, the  greater  part  of  which  he  purloined,  than  in  the 
poet's  personality  and  the  transformation  which  his  gro- 
tesque and  fanciful  genius  accomplished  with  its  material. 

^Letters,  iv.,  217.  ^  Letter  s,\.w.,  ^o-]. 

3  In  structure,  the  Morgante  Maggiore,  is  made  up  of  the  rifacimenti 
of  two  earlier  works:  one,  the  Orlando,  rather  commonplace  and  mono- 
tonous in  tone,  was  the  basis  of  the  first  twenty-three  cantos;  the  other, 
La  Spagna,  in  prose,  loftier  and  more  stately,  gave  a  foundation  for  the 
last  five  cantos. 


146  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Through  much  humorous  and  ironic  digression,  through 
some  amusing  interpolated  episodes,  through  a  balancing 
of  the  serious  and  the  comic  elements  of  the  story,  through  a 
style  popular  in  origin  and  humorous  in  effect,  and  through 
the  creation  of  two  new  characters,  the  giant  Margutte  and 
the  demon  Astarotte,  he  made  his  poem  a  reflection  of  his 
own  bourgeois  individuality,  clever,  tolerant,  and  irrepres- 
sible in  its  inclination  to  seize  upon  the  burlesque  possi- 
bilities in  men  or  events. 

That  the  Morgante  Maggiore  is  a  burlesque  poem  is  due 
not  so  much  to  deliberate  design  on  Pulci's  part  as  to  the 
unconscious  reflection  of  his  boisterous,  full-blooded,  yet 
at  the  same  time,  meditative  nature.  It  is  unwise  to  attri- 
bute to  him  any  motive  beyond  that  of  amusing  his  audience. 
In  spite  of  its  apparent  irreverence,  the  Morgante  was  pro- 
bably not  planned  as  a  satire  on  chivalry  or  on  the  church, 
Pulci — "the  lively,  affecting,  hopeful,  charitable,  large- 
hearted  Luigi  Piilci,"  as  Hunt  called  him — was  at  bottom 
kindly  and  sympathetic,  and  his  work  displays  a  robust 
geniality  and  good-humor  which  had  undoubtedly  some 
influence  on  Don  Juan.  We  rarely  find  Pulci  in  a  fury; 
at  times  his  merriment  is  not  far  from  Rabelaisian,  however 
always  without  a  trace  of  indignation,  for  his  levity  and 
playfulness  seem  genuine.  This  very  tolerance  is  perhaps 
the  product  of  Renaissance  skepticism,  which  viewed  both 
dogmatism  and  infideHty  wdth  suspicion.  Deep  emotion, 
tragedy,''and  pathos  are  all  to  be  met  with  in  the  Morgante, 
but  each  is  counter-balanced  by  mockery,  comedy,  or 
realism.  It  is  this  recurring  antithesis,  this  continual  intro- 
duction of  the  grotesque  into  the  midst  of  what  is,  by  itself, 
dignified  and  serious,  that  is  the  distinctive  peculiarity  of 
Pulci's  manner.  The  mere  turn  of  a  phrase  makes  a  situa- 
tion absurd.  There  is  no  intensity  about  this  Florentine; 
he  espouses  no  theories  and  advocates  no  creeds ;  he  is  con- 
tent to  have  his  laugh  and  to  set  others  chuckling. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  147 

This  summary  may  be  of  service  in  suggesting  one  reason 
why,  in  the  later  cantos  of  Don  Juan,  we  sometimes  are  met 
with  a  tolerance  almost  sympathetic,  mdely  differing  from 
the  passionate  narrowness  of  English  Bards.  Pulci,  unlike 
Byron,  was  not  a  declared  satirist ;  his  theme  was  in  the  past, 
steeped  in  legend  and  myth;  but  something  of  his  spirit, 
difficult  to  analyze  as  that  spirit  may  be,  tempered  and 
modified  the  satire  of  the  older  Byron. 

Byron's  first  definite  reference  to  Pulci  occurs  in  a  portion 
of  Don  Juan  written  in  November,  1819: 

"Pulci  was  sire  of  the  half -serious  rhyme. 
Who  sang  when  chivalry  was  not  Quixotic, 
And  revelled  in  the  fancies  of  the  time. 
True  knights,  chaste  dames,  huge  giants.  Kings  despotic.  "* 

However,  Dott  Juan,  III,  45,  presenting  a  possible  parallel- 
ism with  the  Morgante,  XVIII,  115,  would  indicate  that 
Byron  was  familiar  with  Pulci 's  poem  at  least  some  months 
before.^  On  February  7,  1820,  he  wrote  Murray:  "I  am 
translating  the  first  canto  of  Pulci 's  Morgante  Maggiore, 
and  have  half  done  it."^  In  speaking  of  the  completion  of 
the  translation,  of  which  he  was  very  proud,  he  told  Murray, 
February  12,  1820:  "You  must  print  it  side  by  side  with 
the  original  Italian,  because  I  wish  the  reader  to  judge  of 
the  fidelity;  it  is  stanza  for  stanza,  and  often  line  for  line,  if 
not  word  for  word."''     In  the  Preface  to  the  translation, 

'  Don  Juan,  IV.,  6. 

'  It  is  probable  that  Byron  had  read  Merivale's  poem,  Orlando  in 
Roncesvalles  (1814),  for  in  the  advertisement  to  his  translation  of  Pulci 
he  refers  to  "the  serious  poems  on  Roncesvalles  in  the  same  language 
[English] — and  particularly  the  excellent  one  of  Mr.  Merivale."  Meri- 
vale's work,  based  though  it  is  upon  the  Morgante,  is  without  humor, 
and  could  have  given  Byron  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  Pulci. 

3  Letters,  iv.,  402.  •<  Letters,  iv.,  407. 


148  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IX   VERSE 

printed  with  it  in  The  Liberal,  July  30,  1&23,  Byron  uttered 
his  final  word  on  the  Italian  writer:  "Pulci  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  precursor  and  model  of  Berni  altogether  .  .  . 
He  is  no  less  the  founder  of  a  new  stjde  of  poetry  lately 
sprung  up  in  England.  I  allude  to  that  of  the  ingenious 
Whistlecraft."  It  is  evident,  then,  that  Byron  estimated 
Pulci's  work  very  highly,  that  he  was  acquainted,  probably, 
with  the  entire  Morgante  Maggiore  and  had  studied  the 
first  canto,  at  least,  in  detail,  and  that  he  considered  him 
the  original  model  of  Berni  and  Frere. 

It  remains  to  point  out  specific  qualities  in  manner  and 
style  which  link  the  two  poets  together.'  Towards  the 
narrative  portion  of  the  Morgante,  Byron  seems  to  have  been 
indifferent.  In  Don  Juan  there  is  but  one  clear  allusion  to 
the  Carolingian  legend : 

"Just  now,  enough;  but  bye  and  bye  ^  '11  prattle 
Like  Roland's  horn  in  Roncesvalles'  battle."^ 

There  is  a  fairly  close  parallel  already  pointed  out  between 
the  response  of  a  servant  to  Lambro  in  Don  Juan,  III,  45, 
and  Margutte's  speech  in  the  Morgante,  XVIII,  1 15.  There 
are,  however,  no  other  incidents  in  Don  Juan  which  resemble 
any  part  of  the  earlier  poem. 

Pulci's  realism,  a  quaHty  which  is  usually  in  itself  bur- 
lesque when  it  is  applied  to  a  romantic  subject,  is  shown  in 
his  fondness  for  homely  touches  and  minute  details,  in  his 
use  of  words  out  of  the  street  and  proverbs  from  the  lips  of 
the  populace.     The  interjection  of  the  lower-class  spirit  into 

'  Cantos  III.  and  IV.  of  Doji  Juan  were  written  in  the  winter  of  1819- 
1820,  while  Byron  was  at  work  on  his  translation  of  the  Morgante;  hence 
it  is  certain  that  the  influence  of  Pulci  may  be  looked  for  at  least  as  early 
as  Canto  III.  It  is  probable,  moreover,  that  Byron  became  acquainted 
with  Pulci's  work  before,  or  soon  after,  the  beginning  of  Don  Jua}i  in 
September,  18 18.  '  Don  Juan,  X.,  87. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I49 

the  poem  helped  to  make  the  Morgante  in  actuality  what 
Frere  had  tried  to  produce  in  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants — 
a  treatment  of  heroic  characters  and  deeds  by  a  bourgeois 
mind.  The  spectacle  of  the  common  vulgar  details  in  the 
every-day  life  of  men  supposedly  great  naturally  somewhat 
degrades  the  heroes.  When  Byron  portrays  General 
Suwarrow  as 

"Hero,  buffoon,  half-demon,  and  half-dirt,"^ 

he  is  follo\^dng  the  methods  of  Pulci,  who  made  his  giants 
gluttons  and  his  Rinaldo  a  master  of  Billingsgate.^  In 
the  Morgante  warriors  are  continually  being  put  into 
ludicrous  situations:  Morgante  fights  his  battles  with  a 
bell-clapper;  Rinaldo  knocks  a  Saracen  into  a  bowl  of 
soup  3;  and  the  same  noble,  turned  robber,  threatens  to  steal 
from  St.  Peter  and  to  seize  the  mantles  of  St.  Ursula  and 
the^Angel  Gabriel.''  Pulci  compares  Roncesvalles  to  a  pot 
in  much  the  same  spirit  that  Byron  Hkens  a  rainbow  to  a 
black  eye. 5  Pulci  is  fond  of  cataloguing  objects,  especially 
the  varieties  of  food  served  at  banquets;  and  Byron  shows 
the  same  propensity  in  describing  in  detail  the  viands  pro- 
vided for  the  feast  of  Haidee  and  Juan,  and  the  dinner  at 
Norman  Abbey.  Pulci's  realism  is  also  manifest  in  his  use 
of  slang  and  the  language  of  low  life.  In  this  respect,  too, 
Byron  is  little  behind  him:  Juan  fires  his  pistol  "into  one 
assailant's  pudding";  slang  phrases  are  frequently  intro- 
duced into  Don  Juan,  and  elevated  poetic  style  is  made  more 
vivid  by  contrast  with  intentionally  prosaic  passages. 

Another  pecuHarity  of  Pulci  is  his  tendency  to  make  use 
of  many  Tuscan  proverbs  and  to  coin  sententious  apothegms 
of  his  own.     The  framework  of  the  octave  lends  itself  easily 

'  Don  Juan,  VII.,  55.  '  Morgante  Maggiore,  XIV.,  7. 

37/nd.,  III.,  51.  *  Ibid.,  XI.,  21. 

5  Don  Juan,  II.,  92. 


ISO  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

to  compact  maxims  in  the  final  couplet,  and  perhaps  it  is 
due  to  this  fact  that  Don  Juan  and  the  Morgante  are  both 
crammed  with  epigrams.  In  Pulci's  poetry  one  meets  on 
nearly  every  page  with  such  apt  sayings  as 

"La  fede  h  fatta,  come  fa  il  soUetico"' 

and 

"Co'  santi  in  chiesa,  e  co'  ghiotti  in  taverna."^ 

One  example  out  of  the  many  in  Don  Juan  will  suffice  for 
quotation : — 

"Adversity  is  the  first  path  to  truth."  ^ 

Possibly  the  fact  that  the  Morgante  was  first  recited  to 
the  members  of  Lorenzo's  circle  is  chiefly  responsible  for 
Pulci's  habit  of  turning  often  to  his  listeners,  inviting  them, 
as  it  were,  to  draw  nearer  and  share  his  confidence.  Thus 
he  confesses: 

"Non  so  se  il  vero  appunto  anche  si  disse; 
Accetta  il  savio  in  fin  la  veria  gloria ; 
E  cosi  seguirem  la  nostra  storia."'* 

Byron  speaks  repeatedly  in  this  sort  of  mocking  apology:^ 

"If  my  thunderbolt  not  always  rattles, 
Remember,  reader!  you  have  had  before, 
The  worst  of  tempests  and  the  best  of  battles.  "^ 

Both  poets  assume,  at  times,  an  affected  modesty:  thus 
at  the  very  end  of  the  Morgante  Pulci  asserts  that  he  is  not 
presumptuous : 

'  Morgante  Maggiore,  XVIII.,  117.  '  Ihid.,  XVIII.,  144. 

3  Don  Juan,  XII.,  50.  ■<  Morgante  Maggiore,  XXIV.,  83. 

^Don  Juan,  XII.,  88. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I5I 

"lo  non  domando  grillanda  d'alloro, 
Di  che  i  Greci  e  i  Latini  chieggon  corona  .  .  . 
Anzi  non  son  prosuntuoso  tanto, 
Quanto  quel  foUe  antico  citarista 
A  cui  tolse  gia  Apollo  il  vivo  ammanto;  .  .  . 
E  cio  ch'  io  penso  coUa  fantasia, 
Di  piacere  ad  ognuno  e  '1  mio  disegno."^ 

So^Byron  refers  to  his  own  lack  of  ambition: 

"I  perch  upon  an  humbler  promontory, 
Amidst  Life's  infinite  variety; 
With  no  great  care  for  what  is  nicknamed  Glory. 


"2 


At  the  end  of  nearly  ever}^  canto  of  the  Morgante  is  a  promise 
of  continuation,  so  phrased  as  to  seem  conventional:  e.  g., 

"Come  io  diro  ne  I'altro  mio  cantare." 

The  same  custom  became  common  with  Byron,  in  such 
lines  as, 

' '  Let  this  fifth  canto  meet  with  due  applause, 
The  sixth  shall  have  a  touch  of  the  sublime."^ 

There  is,  however,  one  important  distinction  between  the 
two  poets  in  their  use  of  the  digression :  Pulci  employs  it  for 
cursory  comment  on  his  story,  or  for  chat  about  himself; 
Byron  utilizes  it  not  only  for  these  purposes,  but  also  for 
the  expression  of  satire.  It  is  in  his  digressions  that  he 
speaks  out  directly  against  individuals,  institutions,  and 
society  in  general.  The  Morgante  is  a  tale,  with  an  occa-» 
sional  remark  by  the  author;  Don  Juan  is  a  monologue,] 
sustained  by  a  narrative  framework. 

Pulci's  comparison  of  his  poetry  to  a  boat  is  introduced 

'  Morgante  Maggiore,  XXVIII.,  138-9.  ^  Don  Juan,  XV.,  19. 

i  Ibid.,  v.,  159. 


I 


152  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

SO  frequently  that  it  may  possibly  have  suggested  the  figure 
to  Byron.  A  typical  instance  of  its  usage  may  be  quoted 
in  the  lines : — 

"lo  me  n'andro  con  la  barchetta  mia, 
Ouanto  I'acqua  comporta  un  picciol  legno."' 

Byron's  employment  of  the  metaphor  is  also  somewhat 
frequent : — 

"At  the  least  I  have  shunned  the  common  shore, 
And  leaving  land  far  out  of  sight,  would  skim 
The  Ocean  of  Eternity :  the  roar 
Of  breakers  has  not  daunted  my  slight,  trim, 
But  still  seaworthy  skiff;  and  she  may  float, 
Where  ships  have  foundered,  as  doth  many  a  boat.  "^ 

It  should  be  added  that  the  brief  "grace  before  meat," 
so  apparently  truely  devotional  in  phraseology,  which  Pulci 
prefixed  to  each  of  his  cantos,  and  the  equally  orthodox 
epilogues  in  which  he  gave  a  benediction  to  his  readers,  are 
his  own  peculiarity,  borrowed  unquestionably  from  the 
street  improvisatori.  There  is  nothing  corresponding  to 
them  in  Don  Juan. 

Both  Pulci  and  Byron  were  men  of  wide  reading,  and  not 
averse  to  displaying  and  making  use  of  their  information. 
Pulci  treats  the  older  poets  without  reverence:  he  quotes 
Dante' s ' '  dopo  la  dolorosa  rotta ' '  without  acknowledgment  ^ ; 
he  burlesques  the  famous  phrase  about  Aristotle  by  having 
Morgante  call  Margutte  "il  maestro  di  color  che  sanno"; 
and  he  alludes  to  Petrarch  with  a  wink : — 

'  Other  examples  occur  in  the  Morgante  Maggiore,  I.,  4;  II.,  i ;  XIV., 
i;XVI.,  i;XXI.,  i;XXIV.,  i;  XXVIII.,  i. 

*  Don  Juan,  X.,  4.  i  Morgante  Maggiore,  I.,  8. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  I53 

"0  sommo  amore,  o  nuova  cortesia! 
Vedi  che  forse  ognun  si  crede  ancora, 
Che  questo  verso  del  Petrarca  fa: 
Ed  e  gia  tanto,  e'  lo  disse  Rinaldo ; 
Ma  chi  non  ruba  e  chiamato  rubaldo."^ 

This  recalls  Byron's  exhortation  at  the  end  of  Don  Juan,  I, 
when,  after  quoting  four  lines  from  Southey,  he  adds: 

"The  first  four  rhymes  are  Southey 's  every  line: 
For  God's  sake,  reader!  take  them  not  for  mine." 

In  a  similar  way  Byron  gives  four  lines  from  Campbell's 
Gertrude  of  Wyoming,  and  comments  upon  them  in  Don 
Juan,  I,  88-89. 

This  discussion  would  be  incomplete  if  it  did  not  mention 
Pulci's  fondness  for  philosophical  reflection,  meditations  on 
Life  and  death,  on  joy  and  sorrow.  Volpi  has  attempted  to 
demonstrate  that  Pulci,  like  many  so-called  humorists,  was 
really,  under  the  mask,  a  sad  man.  In  making  good  this 
thesis  he  takes  such  lines  as  these  as  indicative  of  Pulci's 
true  attitude  towards  the  problems  of  existence : — 

"Questa  nostra  mortal  caduca  vista 
Fasciata  e  sempre  d'un  oscuro  velo ; 
E  spesso  il  vero  scambia  alia  menzogna; 
Poi  si  risveglia,  come  fa  chi  sogna."^ 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  Pulci,  in  his  more 
thoughtful  moods,  inclined  to  pessimism  and  intellectual 
scepticism. 

"Pulci's  versification,"  says  Foscolo,  "is  remarkably 
fluent;  yet  he  is  deficient  in  melody."  Another  critic,  the 
author  of  the  brief  note  in  the  Parnaso  Italiano,  mentions 

'  Morgante  Maggiore,  XXV.,  283.  ^  Ihid.,  XXVIII.,  35. 


154  LORD   BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST   IK  VERSE 

his  rapidity  and  his  compression:  "Tu  troverai  pochi  poeti, 
che  viaggino  so  velocemente,  come  il  Pulci,  il  qualo  in  otti 
versi  dice  spesso  piu  di  otte  cose. "  For  this  fluency  and  its 
corresponding  lack  of  rhythm,  the  conversational  tone  of 
the  Morgante  is  largely  responsible.  The  many  colloquial 
digressions  and  the  use  of  common  idioms  hinder  any  ap- 
proach to  a  grand  style.  Pulci's  indifference  to  the  strict 
demands  of  metre,  his  employment  of  abrupt  and  discon- 
nected phrases,  and  his  frequent  sacrifice  of  melody  to  vigor 
and  compactness,  are  also  characteristic  of  Byron's  method 
in  his  Italian  satires.  Although  Don  Juan  contains  some 
of  Byron's  most  musical  passages,  it  nevertheless  gives  the 
impression  of  having  been,  like  the  Morgante,  composed  for 
an  audience,  the  speaker  being,  perhaps,  governed  by  rough 
notes,  but  tempted  from  his  theme  into  extemporaneous 
observations,  and  caring  so  little  for  regularity  or  unity  of 
structure  that  he  feels  no  compunction  about  obeying  the 
inclination  of  the  moment.  It  is  not  without  some  acute- 
ness  that  he  alludes  to, 

"  Mine  irregularity  of  chime. 
Which  rings  what  's  uppermost  of  new  or  hoary, 
Just  as  I  feel  the  Improvvisatore."^ 

Specifically  in  the  field  of  satire,  Pulci's  work,  important 
though  it  was  in  some  features  of  style  and  manner,^ 
exercised  its  greatest  influence  on  Byron's  mood.  The 
chastening  effect  of  Byron's  life  on  his  poetic  genius  had 
made  him  peculiarly  receptive  to  the  spirit  of  Pulci's  poem; 

'  Don  Juan,  XV.,  20. 

'  It  is  significant  that  Byron  was  able  to  make  his  translation  of  the 
first  canto  of  the  Morgante  so  faithful  to  the  original.  On  September 
28,  1820,  he  wrote  Murray: — "The  Pulci  I  am  proud  of;  it  is  superb; 
you  have  no  such  translation.  It  is  the  best  thing  I  ever  did  in  my  life  " 
(Letters,  i.,  83).  It  is  obvious  that  there  were  features  in  Pulci's  style 
which  appealed  to  Byron. 


THE   ITALIAN   INFLUENCE  155 

and  accordingly  the  Italian  poet  taught  him  to  take  life  and 
his  enemies  somewhat  less  seriously,  to  be  more  tolerant 
and  more  genial,  to  make  playfulness  and  humor  join  with 
vituperation  in  his  satire.  Byron's  satiric  spirit,  through  his 
contact  with  Pulci,  became  more  sympathetic,  and  there- 
fore more  universal. 

To  Bemi,  whom  he,  at  one  time,  considered  to  be  the 
true  master  of  the  Italian  burlesque  genre,  Byron  has  few 
references.  We  have  seen  how  he  was  induced  to  revise  his 
first  opinion  and  to  recognize  in  Pulci  "the  precursor  and 
model  of  Bemi  altogether."  In  the  advertisement  to  the 
translation  of  the  Morgante  he  asserted  that  Berni,  in  his 
rifacimettto,  corrected  the  "harsh  style"  of  Boiardo.  These 
meagre  data,  however,  furnish  no  clue  to  the  possible  in- 
fluence of  Bemi's  work  upon  Don  Juan. 

Francesco  Bemi  (i496?-i535)'  is  important  here  chiefly 
because  of  his  rifacimento,  or  revision,  of  Boiardo's  Orlando 
Innamorato.  In  accomplishing  this  task  he  completely 
made  over  Boiardo's  romance  by  refining  the  style,  polishing 
the  verse- structure,  inserting  lengthy  digressions  of  his  own 
and  following  a  scheme  instituted  by  Ariosto,  prefacing 
each  canto  with  a  sort  of  essay  in  verse.  Bemi's  purpose, 
indeed,  was  to  make  the  Innamorato  worthy  of  the  Furioso. 
His  version,  however,  owing  probably  to  the  malice  of  some 
enemy,  has  reached  us  only  in  a  mutilated  form.  As  it 
stands,  nevertheless,  it  possesses  certain  features  which 
distinguish  it  from  the  work  of  Pulci  on  the  one  hand  and 
that  of  Casti  on  the  other. 

The  influence  which  Bemi  may  have  had  on  Byron's 

'  Bemi  was  a  priest,  who  became,  with  Molza,  La  Casa,  Firenzuola, 
and  Bini,  a  member  of  the  famous  Accademia  della  VignajuoH  in  Rome, 
in  which  circle  he  was  accustomed  to  recite  his  humorous  poetry.  He 
died  under  suspicious  circumstances,  perhaps  poisoned  by  one  of  the 
Medicean  princesses.  He  was  the  bitter  enemy  of  Pietro  Aretino,  the 
most  scurrilous  satirist  of  the  age. 


156  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

satires  comes  mainly  from  two  features  of  the  former's  work: 
his  introductions  to  separate  cantos,  and  his  admirable 
style  and  versification.  It  was  Bemi's  habit  to  soliloquize 
before  beginning  his  story :  thus  Canto  IX  of  the  Innamorato 
commences  with  a  philosophical  disquisition  on  the  im- 
expected  character  of  most  human  misfortunes,  leading,  by  a 
natural  step,  to  the  plot  itself.  So,  in  Don  Juan,  only  one 
canto — the  second — begins  with  the  tale  itself;  every  other 
has  a  preliminary  discussion  of  one  sort  or  another.^  It 
was  also  Berni's  custom  to  take  formal  leave  of  his  readers 
at  the  end  of  each  canto,  and  to  add  a  promise  of  iwhat  was 
to  come.^  This  habit,  all  but  universal  with  the  Italian 
narrative  poets,  Byron  followed,  although  his  farewell  occurs 
sometimes  even  before  the  very  last  stanza.  A  typical 
example  may  be  quoted: 

"It  is  time  to  ease 
This  Canto,  ere  my  Muse  perceives  fatigue. 
The  next  shall  ring  a  peal  to  shake  all  people, 
Like  a  bob-major  from  a  village  steeple."^ 

Bemi's  style  and  diction  are  far  superior  to  Pulci's. 
Coimt  Giammaria  Mazzuchelli,  in  the  ^edition  of  Berni  in 
Classici  Italiafii,  says  of  this  feature  of  ;his  w^ork:  "La, 
facilita  della  rima  congiunta  alia  naturallezza  dell'  espres- 
sione,  e  la  vivacita  de'  pensieri  degli  scherzi  uniti  a  singolare 
coltura  nello  stile  sono  in  lui  si  maravigliose,  che  viene  egli 
considerate  come  il  capo  di  si  fatta  poesia,  la  quale  percio 
ha  presa  da  lui  la  denominazione,  e  suol  chimarsi  Bernesca. " 

'  See,  Don  Juan,  XII.,  1-22,  with  its  discussion  of  avarice. 
'  See,  for  example,  the  Innamorato,  II.,  70: 

"Ma  s'io  dicesse  ogni  cosa  al  prestnte 

Da  dire  un'  altra  volta  non  aria; 

Pero  tomate,  e  s'attenti  starete, 

Sempre  piu  belle  cose  sentirete." 
3  Don  Juan,  VII.,  85. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  157 

He  alone  of  the  three  Itahan  burlesque  writers  considered, 
succeeded  in  creating  a  masterpiece  of  literary  art.^  In 
this  respect,  then,  his  influence  on  Byron  may  have  been 
salutary. 

Henri  Beyle  (1783-1842),  the  self-styled  M.  Stendhal,  is 
responsible  for  the  theory,  since  repeated  by  other  critics, 
that  Byron's  Italian  satires  owe  much  to  the  work  of  the 
Venetian  dialect  poet,  Pietro  Buratti  (1772-1832).  When 
Beyle  was  with  Byron  in  Milan  in  November,  1816,  he 
heard  Silvio  Pellico  speak  to  Byron  of  Buratti  as  a  charming 
poet,  who,  every  six  months,  by  the  governor's  orders,  paid 
a  visit  to  the  prisons  of  Venice.  Beyle's  account  of  the 
ensuing  events  runs  as  follows:  "In  my  opinion,  this 
conversation  with  Silvio  Pellico  gave  the  tone  to  Byron's 
subsequent  poetical  career.  He  eagerly  demanded  the 
name  of  the  bookseller  who  sold  M.  Buratti 's  works;  and 
as  he  was  accustomed  to  the  expression  of  Milanese  blunt- 
ness,  the  question  excited  a  hearty  laugh  at  his  expense. 
He  was  soon  informed  that  if  Buratti  wished  to  pass  his 
whole  life  in  prison,  the  appearance  of  his  works  in  print 
would  infallibly  lead  to  the  gratification  of  his  desires ;  and 
besides,  where  could  a  printer  be  found  hardy  enough  to  run 
his  share  of  the  risk? — The  next  day,  the  charming  Con- 
tessina  N.  was  kind  enough  to  lend  her  collection  to  one  of 
our  party.  Byron,  who  imagined  himself  an  adept  in  the 
language  of  Dante  and  Ariosto,  was  at  first  rather  puzzled 
by  Buratti's  manuscripts.  We  read  over  with  him  some  of 
Goldoni's  comedies,  which  enabled  him  at  last  to  compre- 
hend Buratti's  satires.    I  persist  in  thinking,  that  for  the 

'  Many  characteristics  of  the  Innamorato,  however,  are  like  those  of 
the  work  of  Pulci  and  Casti.  There  are  the  same  equivocal  allusions 
and  obscenities,  the  same  pervasive  skepticism  and  pessimism,  and  the 
same  colloquial  style  that  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  Morgante  and  the 
Novelle.  Berni  was  perhaps  greater  as  a  craftsman  and  artist,  but  other- 
wise had  the  virtues  and  the  faults  of  the  other  burlesque  poets. 


158  LORD   BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

composition  of  Beppo,  and  subsequently  of  Do7t  Jiian, 
Byron  was  indebted  to  the  reading  of  Buratti's  poetry."' 

A  statement  so  plain  by  a  man  of  Beyle's  authority 
deserves  some  attention.  The  first  question  which  arises 
in  connection  with  his  assertion  is  naturally,  what  work 
Buratti  had  done  before  181 7,  when  Byron  began  the 
composition  of  Beppo. ^  After  a  dissipated  boyhood, 
Buratti  had  become  a  member  of  the  Corte  dei  Busoni,  a 
pseudo-Academy  which  devoted  its  attention  chiefly  to 
satire.  Although  he  was  the  author  of  several  early  lam- 
poons, his  first  political  satire  was  recited  in  i8i3amonga 
party  of  friends  at  the  home  of  Counsellor  Galvagna  in 
Venice.  It  is,  in  substance,  a  lamentation  over  the  fate  of 
Venice,  with  invective  directed  against  the  French  army  of 
occupation;  Malamani  styles  it  "a  masterpiece  of  subtle 
sarcasm.  "  Eventually,  through  the  treachery  of  apparent 
friends,  the  verses  came  to  French  ears,  and  Buratti  was 
imprisoned  for  thirty  days,  his  punishment,  however,  being 
somewhat  lightened  by  powerful  patrons.  Shortly  after 
this  episode,  he  circulated  some  quatrains  of  a  scurrilous 
nature  on  Filippo  Scolari,  a  pedantic  youth  who  had  criti- 
cised contemporary  literary  men  in  a  supercilious  way. 
For  these  insults,  Scolari  tried  to  have  Buratti  apprehended 
again,  but  the  latter,  although  he  was  forced  to  sign^an 
agreement  to  write  no  more  satires,  received  only  a  repri- 
mand. During  this  period  he  had  also  directed  several 
pasquinades  at  an  eccentric  priest,  Don  Domenico  Mari- 
enis,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  general  object  of  ridicule 
in  Venice. 

Such,  according  to  Malamani,  was  the  extent  of  Buratti's 
work  up  to  1816.     His  masterpiece, the  Storia  dell'  Elefante, 

'Letters,  iii.,  444-445. 

'Buratti's  career  is  treated  at  length  in  Vittorio  Malamani's  mono- 
graph, 11  Principe  dei  satirici  Veneziani  (1887).  An  edition  of  his 
poetry,  in  two  volumes,  was  printed  in  1864, 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  159 

was  not  written  until  1819,  too  late  to  have  been  a  strong 
influence  even  on  Don  Juan.  Of  this  early  satiric  verse,  no 
one  important  poem  was  composed  in  ottava  rima.  The 
poems,  all  short  and  of  no  especial  value  as  literature,  used 
the  Venetian  dialect,  as  far  removed  from  pure  Tuscan  as 
Scotch  is  from  English.  Their  most  noticeable  character- 
istic is  their  prevailing  irony,  a  method  of  satire  of  which 
Byron  only  occasionally  availed  himself.  With  these  facts 
in  mind,  and  with  the  additional  knowledge  that  Byron  was 
unquestionably  influenced  by  the  burlesque  writers,  it  is 
improbable  that  Beyle's  theory  deserves  any  credence. 
Beyle  has  made  it  clear  that  Byron,  at  one  time,  read 
Buratti's  work  with  interest;  but  he  has  failed  to  show  how 
the  English  poet  could  have  acquired  anything,  either  in 
matter  or  in  style,  from  the  Italian  satirist.^ 

Of  other  Italian  poems  sometimes  mentioned  as  possibly 
contributing  something  to  Don  Juan,  no  one  is  worth  more 
than  a  cursory  notice.  La  Secchia  .  Rapita,  by  Tassoni 
(i  565-1 635),  is  a  genuine  mock-heroic,  the  model  for 
Boileau's  Lutrin  and,  to  some  extent,  for  Pope's  Rape  of  the 
Lock.  So  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  Byron  has  no  reference 
either  to  the  author  or  to  his  poem;  and  since  La  Secchia 
Rapita  preserves  consistently  the  grand  style,  applying  it  to 

'  Buratti's  after-life  brought  him  once  into  relation  with  Byron.  On 
the  birth  of  a  son  to  Hoppner,  the  British  Consul  at  Venice,  Byron  pre- 
sented the  father  with  a  short  madrigal; — 

"His  father's  sense,  his  mother's  grace, 
In  him,  I  hope,  will  always  fit  so; 
With — still  to  keep  him  in  good  case — 
The  health  and  appetite  of  Rizzo." 

The  Count  Rizzo  Pattarol,  named  in  the  last  Hne,  had  the  verses  trans- 
lated into  several  languages,  in  the  ItaUan  version  changing  the  word 
"appetite"  to  "buonomore."  This  piece  of  vanity  so  excited  the  mirth 
of  Buratti  that  he  commemorated  the  affair  in  an  epigram.  Byron, 
however,  seems  to  have  paid  no  attention  to  the  incident. 


l6o  LORD   BVROxN   AS  A   SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

trivial  subjects,  it  has  little  in  common  with  Byron's 
satires. ' 

With  //  Ricciardetto ,  by  Fortegucrri  (i 675-1 735),  Byron 
was  better  acquainted.  Indeed  Foscolo,  without  giving 
proof  for  his  conclusion,  suggested  that  it  might  have  offered 
some  ideas  to  the  English  writer.  The  Italian  poem,  com- 
pleted about  1 71 5,  after  having  been  composed,  according 
to  tradition,  at  the  rate  of  a  canto  a  day,  contains  thirty 
cantos  in  ottava  rima.  It  is  an  avowed  burlesque,  in 
which  heroes  of  Carolingian  romance  are  degraded  to  buf- 
foons, Rinaldo  becoming  a  cook  and  Ricciardetto  a  barber. 
In  it,  as  Foffano  says,  "the  marvellous  becomes  absurd,  the 
sublime,  grotesque,  and  the  heroic,  ridiculous."  Forte- 
guerri's  design,  however,  was  not  directly  satiric,  and  he  was 
seldom  a  destructive  critic.  His  mission  was  solely  to 
divert  his  readers.  Byron  refers  to  Lord  Glenbervie's 
rendering  of  the  first  canto  of  //  Ricciardetto  (1822)  as  most 
amusing,^  but  he  seems  to  have  had  no  great  interest  in  the 
original. 

A  point  has  now  been  reached  where  it  is  practicable  to 
frame  some  generalizations  as  to  the  extent  and  nature 

'  There  is  less  of  the  mock-heroic  in  Don  Jtian  than  is  ordinarily 
supposed.  It  has  Httle  in  common  with  the  classical  Mock-Epic,  repre- 
sented in  Enghsh  by  the  Dunciad,  the  Scribleriad,  and  the  Dispensary, 
poems  which  use  the  epic  machinery  of  gods  and  goddesses,  ridiculing 
the  manner  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  epics  through  the  method  of 
parody.  Don  Juan,  on  the  other  hand,  is  unrelated  to  the  work  of 
either  Homer  or  Virgil.  Nor  does  it  burlesque  the  ItaUan  epics:  its 
characters,  modern  and  unconventional  as  they  are,  are  not,  even  in  a 
humorous  sense,  heroic,  and  the  matter  dealt  with  is  borrowed  from 
none  of  the  Italian  romances.  The  fact  that  exalted  emotions  are  made 
absurd,  or  that  fine  feelings  are  jeered  at  does  not  warrant  us  in  classing 
Don  Juan  with  the  mock-heroic  poems.  Indeed,  the  mere  absence  of 
the  typical  addresses  to  the  Muse — they  occur  only  twice  in  Don  Juan 
(II.,  7;  III.,  i) — indicates  that  Byron  did  not  imitate  the  epic  form. 

'  Letters,  vi.,  50. 


THE  ITALIAN  INFLUENCE  l6l 

of  Byron's  indebtedness  to  the  Italians.  For  his  subject- 
matter,  he  owed  them  something.  The  Catharine  II 
episode  in  Don  Juan  may  have  been  suggested  by  //  Poema 
Tartaro;  an  occasional  unimportant  incident  or  situation 
may  have  been  taken  or  modified  from  the  work  of  Casti  or 
Pulci.  On  the  whole,  however,  Byron's  material  was  either 
original  or  drawn  from  other  sources  than  the  Italians. 
Even  though  Byron  and  Casti  so  frequently  satirize  the 
same  institutions  and  theories,  it  is  improbable  that  this  is 
more  than  coincidence,  the  result  of  the  natural  opposition 
which  similar  abuses  aroused  in  men  so  alike  in  tempera- 
ment and  intellect. 

In  his  manner,  however,  Byron  was  profoundly  affected, 
so  much  so  that  his  own  statement  about  Beppo — "The 
style  is  not  English,  it  is  Italian" — ^  is  in  exact  accordance 
with  the  impression  which  Beppo,  as  well  as  Don  Juan, 
makes  on  the  reader.  He  learned,  in  part  from  Casti, 
and  later  from  Berni  and  Pulci,  the  use  of  the  burlesque 
method;  he  adopted  their  discursive  style,  with  its  oppor- 
tunities for  digression  and  self-assertion,  and  made  it  a 
channel  for  voicing  his  own  beliefs  as  well  as  for  speaking 
out  against  his  enemies.  Accepting  the  hint  offered  by 
their  tendency  to  colloquial  speech,  he  lowered  the  tone  of 
his  diction  and  addressed  himself  often  directly  to  his 
readers.  Moreover,  he  acquired  the  habit  of  shifting 
suddenly  from  seriousness  to  absurdity,  from  the  pathetic 
to  the  grotesque,  in  the  compass  of  a  single  stanza.  His 
wrath,  at  first  untempered,  was  now  softened  by  a  new 
attitude  of  skepticism  which  turned  him  more  to  irony  and 
mockery  than  to  violent  rage. 

In  utilizing  the  octave  for  his  own  satires,  he  gave  it  a 
freedom  of  which  it  had  never  before  been  made  capable  in 
English;  and,  by  a  clever  employment  of  double  and  triple 
rhymes,  and  by  the  constant  use  of  run-on  lines  and  stanzas, 

'  Letters,  iv.,  217. 


l62  LORD   BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

he  adjusted  the  measure  to  the  conversational  flow  of  his 
verse. 

At  a  time,  then,  when  his  youthful  narrowness  was 
developing  into  the  maturity  that  comes  only  from  experi- 
ence, and  when,  therefore,  he  was  most  susceptible  to  broad- 
ening influences,  Byron,  fortunately  for  his  satire,  was 
brought  into  contact  with  the  Italian  spirit.  The  result 
was  that  Don  Juan  joined  many  of  the  most  powerful 
features  of  English  Bards  with  the  lighter  elements  of  Berni 
and  Casti. 

The  beauty  of  Byron's  satire  at  its  finest  in  Don  Juan  and 
The  Vision  of  Judgment,  lies  in  the  welding  of  the  direct 
and  indirect  methods,  in  the  interweaving  of  invective  with 
burlesque,  in  such  a  way  that  the  poems  seem  to  link  the 
spirit  of  Juvenal  with  the  spirit  of  Pulci.  The  consequence 
is  a  variety  of  tone,  a  widening  of  scope,  and  a  considerable 
increase  in  effectiveness.  Byron's  general  attacks  are  re- 
lieved from  the  charge  of  futility;  his  vindictiveness  is 
mitigated  by  humor  and  a  touch  of  the  ridiculous;  and  his 
aggressiveness,  though  it  does  not  disappear,  is  sometimes 
changed  to  a  cynical  tolerance. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
"don  juan" 

With  the  exception  of  The  Ring  and  the  Book,  Don  Juan, 
containing  approximately  16,000  lines,  is  probably  the 
longest  original  poem  in  English  since  the  Faerie  Queene; 
moreover,  if  we  exclude  the  Canterbury  Tales,  no  other  work 
in  verse  in  our  literature  attempts  an  actual  "criticism  of 
life"  on  so  broad _a  scale.  It  is  Byron's  deliberate  arid' 
exhaustive  characterization  of  his  age,  the  book  in  which  he 
divulges  his  opinions  with  the  least  reticence  and  the  most 
finality.  With  all  their  occasional  brilliance  and  power,  his 
earlier  satires  had  been  essentially  imitative  and  could  be 
judged  by  pre-existing  standards.  Later,  in  composing 
Beppo,  Byron  discovered  that  he  had  found  a  kind  of  verse 
capable  of  free  and  varied  treatment  and  therefore  especially 
suited  to  his  improvising  and  discursive  genius;  accordingly, 
in  Don  Juan,  which  is  a  longer  and  more  elaborate  Beppo, 
he  produced  a  masterpiece  which,  besides  being  an  adequate 
revelation  of  his  complex  personality,  is  unique  in  English, 
anomalous  in  its  manner  and  method.^ 

Because  it  reflects  nearly  every  side  of  Byron's  variable 
individuality,  Don  Juan,  though  satirical  in  main  intent, 
combines  satire  with  many  other  elements. __rLis  tragie, 
sensuous^_humorous,  melancholv.  cvnical.  realistic,  and 
exalted,  with  words  for  nearly  every  emotion  and  temper. 

^  "This  poem  [Don  Juan]  carries  with  it  at  once  the  stamp  of  origi- 
nality and  defiance  of  imitation."  (SheUey,  Letter  to  Byron,  Oct.  21, 
1821). 

163 


/ 


:> 

y^ 


164  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  V^ERSE 

It  contains  a  romantic  story,  full  of  sentiment  and  tender- 
ness; it  rises  into  passages  of  lyric  and  descriptive  beauty, 
evidently  heart-felt;  yet  these  serious  and  imaginative 
details  are  imbedded  in  a  sub-stratum  of  satire,  further- 
more, its  range  in  substance  and  style  is  very  great;  it 
discusses  matters  in^61itics,^ih~society,  in  literatuferand  in 
religion;  it  shifts  in  a  stanza  from  grave  to  gay,  from  the 
commonplace  to  the  sublime.  It  is  a  poem  of  freedom; 
free  in  thought  and  free  in  speech,  unrestricted  by  the 
ordinary  laws  of  metre.  "The  soul  of  such  writing  is  its 
license, "  wrote  Byron  to  Murray  in  18 19.  '' , 

The  plot  of  Don  Juan,  dealing,  like  the  picaresque 
romances  of  Le  Sage  and  Smollett,  with  a  series  of  adven- 
tures in  the  life  of  a  wandering  hero,  and  interrupted  con- 
stantly by  the  comments  of  the  author,  has  little  real  unity. 
Considered  as  a  satire,  however,  the  poem  becomes  unified 
through  the  personality  behind  the  stanzas.  \It  is  a  colos- 
sal monument  of  egotism;  wherever  we  read,  we  meet  the 
inevitable  "I."  The  poet's  interest  in  the  progress  of  his 
characters  is  so  obviously  subordinated  to  his  desire  for 
gossiping  with  his  readers  that  the  plot  seems,  at  times,  to  be 
almost  forgotten.  Thus  Don  Juan  is  as  subjective  as 
Byron's  correspondence;  indeed  id^s  were  often  transferred 
directly  from  his  letters  to  his  verses^  There  are  lines  in  the 
poem  which  restate,  sometimes  in  the  same  phraseology, 
the  confessions  and  the  criticisms  recordedby  Lady  Blessing- 
ton  in  her  Conversations  with  Lord  Byron .  Autobiographical 
references  are  very  common,  sometimes  merely  casual,^ 
sometimes  used  as  a  text  for  satire.^  The  powerful  person- 
ality of  the  writer,  expressed  thus  in  his  work,  furnishes  it 
with  a  unity  which  is  lacking  in  the  plot. 

It  is  probable  that  Byron  himself  had  only  a  vague 

'  Don  Juan,  II.,  105;  II.,  166;  V.,  4:  VI.,  5-6. 
'  Ibid.,  v.,  33-39- 


"don  juan"  165 

conception  of  the  structure  and  limits  of  his  poem.  His 
conflicting  assertions,  usually  half-jocular,  concerning  his 
plan  or  scheme  are  proof  that  he  cared  little  about  adhering 
to  a  closely  knit  form.  He  is  most  to  be  trusted  when  he 
says: 

"Note  or  text, 
I  never  know  the  word  which  will  come  next."^ 

or  when  he  confesses  to  Murray:  "You  ask  me  for  the  plan 
of  Donny  Juan :  I  have  no  plan — I  had  no  plan ;  but  I  had 
or  have  materials."^  The  inconsistent  statements  in  the 
body  of  the  poem  are,  of  course,  merely  quizzical :  thus  in  the 
first  canto  Byron  says  decidedly, 

"  My   poem's  epic,  and  is  meant  to  be 
Divided  in  twelve  books'';^ 

when  the  twelfth  canto  is  reached,  he  has  an  apology  ready: 

"I  thought,  at  setting  off,  about  two  dozen 
Cantos  would  do;  but  at  Apollo's  pleading, 
If  that  my  Pegasus  should  not  be  foundered, 
I  hope  to  canter  gently  through  a  hundred."'' 

As  it  lengthened  Don  Juan  developed  more  and  more  into 
a  verse^diary,  bound,  from  the  looseness  of  its  design,  to 
remain  uncompleted  at  Byron's  death. 

But  whatever  may  have  actuated  Byron  in  beginning 
Don  Juan  and  however  uncertain  he  may  have  been  at 
first  about  its  ultimate  purpose,  it  soon  grew  to  be  primarily 
satirical.  He  himself  perceived  this  in  describing  it  to 
Murray  in  181 8  as  "meant  to  be  a  little  quietly  facetious 
upon  everything "5  and  in  characterizing  it  in  1822  as  "a 

'  Don  Juan,  IX.,  41.  ''  Don  Juan,  XII.,  55. 

^Letters,  iv.,  342.  ^Don  Juan,  I.,  200.  ^Letters,  iv.,  260. 


/ 


l66  LORD   BVRON    AS  A  SATIRIST   IN   VERSE 

Satire  on  abuses  of  the  present  states  of  society, "  *  Despite 
the  intermingling  of  other  elements,  the  poem  is  exactly 
what  Byron  called  it — an  "Epic  Satire."^  His  remark 
"  I  was  born  for  opposition  "  indicates  how  much  at  variance 
with  his  age  he  felt  himself  to  be ;  and  his  inclination  to  pick 
flaws  in  existing  institutions  and  to  indulge  in  destructive 
criticism  of  his  time  had  become  so  strong  that  any  poem 
which  expressed  fully  his  attitude  towards  life  was  bound  to 
be  satirical.  Just  as  the  cosmopolitan  outlook  of  the  poem 
is  due  partly  to  Byron's  long-continue3~fesidence  in  a 
foreign  country,  so  its  varied  moods,  its  diverse  methods, 
and  its  wide  range  of  subject  matter  are  to  be  attributed, 
to  a  large  extent,  to  the  fact  that  the  composition  of  Don 
Juan  extended  over  several  years  during  a  period  when  he 
was  growing  intellectually  and  responding  eagerly  to  new 
ideas.  3  The  work  is  a  fair  representation  of  Byron's 
theories  and  beliefs  during  the  period  of  his  maturity,  when 
he  was  developing  into  an  enlightened  advocate  of  progres- 
sive and  liberal  doctrines.  iTt  is  an  attack  on  political  inertia 
and  retrogression,  on  social  conventionality,  on  cant  and 
sham  and  intolerance*:  The  intermittent,  erratic,  and 
somewhat  imitative  radicalism  of  a  few  of  his  earlier  poems 
has  changed  into  a  persistent  hostility  to  all  the  reactionary 
conservation  of  the  time.  Do7i  Juan  is  satiric,  then,  in  that 
it  is  a  protest  against  all  that  hampers  individual  freeS^om 
"""^and  fgtHTds  national  tad^endence.  ■ 

The  pervasive  satiric  spirit  of  Don  Juan  has  varied  mani- 

'  Letters,  vi.,  155.  ^  Don  Juan,  XIV.,  99. 

3  It  was  begun  at  Venice,  September  6,  18 18,  and  the  first  two  cantos 
were  published  anonymously,  July  15,  18 19,  by  Murray.  Despite  much 
hostile  comment,  and  the  reluctance  and  eventual  refusal  of  Murray  to 
print  the  work,  Byron  continued  with  his  project,  entrusting  the  pulili- 
cation  of  the  poem,  after  Canto  V.,  to  John  Hunt.  Canto  XVI.  was 
completed  May  6,  1823,  and  appeared  with  Canto  XV.  on  March  26, 
1824.  Fourteen  stanzas  of  an  unfinished  Canto  XVII.  were  among  his 
papers  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


"don  JUAN"  167 

festations.  In  a  few  passages  there  are  examples  of  rancor 
and  spite,  of  direct  personal  denunciation  and  furious  invec- 
tive, that  recall  the  satire  of  English  Bards.  The  attacks  on 
Castlereagh  and  Southey,  on  Brougham  and  Lady  Byron 
are  in  deadly  earnest,  with  hardly  a  touch  of  mockery.  At 
the  same  time  Byron  relies  mainly  on  the  more  playful  and 
less  savage  method  which  he  had  learned  from  the  Italians 
and  used  in  Beppo.  He  himself  expressed  this  alteration 
in  mood  by  saying, 

"Methinks  the  older  that  one  grows, 
Inclines  us  more  to  laugh  than  scold."' 

It  is  noticeable,  too,  that  in  DonJuati  petulant  fury  is  much 
less  conspicuous  than  philosophic  satire.  Byron  is  assailing 
institutions  and  theories  as  well  as  men  and  women.  To 
some  extent  the  poem  is  a  medium  for  satisfying  a  quarrel 
or  a  prejudice;  but  to  a  far  greater  degree  it  is  a  summary 
of  testimony  hostile  to  the  reactionary  early  nineteenth 
century.  The  poet  still  prefers,  in  many  cases,  to  make 
specific  persons  responsible  for  intolerable  systems ;  but  he  is 
gradually  forsaking  petty  aims  and  rising  to  a  far  nobler 
position  as  a  critic  of  his  age. 

The  satire  in  Don  Juan  is  still  more  remarkable  when  we 
consider  the  field  which  it  surveys.     Byron  is  no  longer 
dealing  with  local  topics,  but  with  subjects  of  momentous 
interest  to  all  humanity.     He  is  assailing,  not  a  small  coterie 
of  editors  or  an  immodest  dance,  but  a  bigoted  and  absolute 
government,  $_|iyBaf'^^'^i'"^^  snn'ety,   and  3   false  idealism. 
wherever  they  exist.     More  than  this,  h.Q..aij,.siLCceeda  in 
.uniting  his  satire,  through, the  force  of  his  personality,  with    , 
the  eternal  elements  of  realism  and  romance,  that  the  com-  / 
bination,  complex  and  intricate  though  it  is,  seems  to  rep-' 
resent  an  undivided  purpose.  / 

'  Beppo,  79. 


J 


l68  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN    VERSE 

Perhaps  the  loftiest  note  in  Byron's  protest  is  struck  in 
dealing  with  the  political  situation  of  his  day.  Despite  his 
noble  birth  and  his  aristocratic  tastes,  he  had  become, 
partly  through  temperamental  inclination,  partly  through 
association  with  Moore  and  Hunt,  a  fairly  consistent  re- 
publican, though  he  took  care  to  make  it  clear,  as  Nichol 
points  out,  that  he  was  "for  the  people,  not  of  them." 
Impatient  of  restraint  on  his  own  actions,  he  extended  his 
belief  in  personal  liberty  until  it  included  the  advocacy  of 
any  democratic  movement.  It  is  to  his  credit,  moreover, 
that  he  was  no  mere  closet  theorist ;  in  Italy  he  espoused  the 
cause  of  freedom  in  a  practical  way  by  abetting  and  joining 
the  revolutionary  Carbonari;  and  he  died  enrolled  in  the 
ranks  of  the  liberators  of  Greece.  In  Don  Juan  he  declares 
^himself  resolutely  opposed  to  tyranny  in  any  form,  asserting 
his  hatred  of  despotism  in  memorable  lines : 

"I  will  teach,  if  possible,  the  stones 
To  rise  against  earth's  tyrants.     Never  let  it 
Be  said  that  we  still  truckle  unto  thrones. '" 

Such  doctrine  was,  of  course,  not  new  in  Byron's  poetry. 
He  had  already  spoken  eloquently  and  mournfully  of  the 
loss  of  Greek  independence^;  he  had  prophesied  the  down- 
fall of  monarchs  and  the  triumph  of  democracy^;  and  he 
had  inserted  in  Childe  Harold  that  vigorous  apostrophe  to 
liberty : 

"Yet,  Freedom,  yet  thy  banner,  torn  but  flying, 
Streams  like  the  thunder-storm  against  the  wind."'' 

In  Don  Juan,  however,  Byron  is  less  rhetorical  and  more 
direct.     In  expressing  his 

'  Don  Juan,  VIII.,  135.  '  Childe  Harold,  II.,  74-76. 

3  Ode  to  the  French,  91-104.  ■•  Childe  Harold,  IV.,  92. 


"don  JUAN"  169 

' '  Plain  sworn  downright  detestation 
Of  every  despotism  in  every  nation,  "' 

he  does  not  hesitate  to  condemn  all  absolute  monarchs; 
moreover  he  displays  a  sincere  faith  in  the  ultimate  success 
of  popular  government : 

"I  think  I  hear  a  little  bird,  who  sings 
The  people  by  and  by  will  be  the  stronger.  "^ 

Such  lines  as  these  show  a  maturity  and  an  earnestness  that  \ 
mark  the  evolution  of  Byron's  satiric  spirit  from  the  hasty 
petulance  of  English  Bards  to  the  humanitarian  breadth  of, 
his  thoughtful  manhood.     Like  "Young  Azim"  in  Moore's  X 
Veiled  Prophet  of  Khorassan,  he  is  eager  to  march  and  com- 
mand under  the  banner  on  which  is  emblazoned  "Freedom 
to  the  World." 

It  is  characteristic  of  Byron's  later  satire  that  he  applied 
his  theory  of  liberty  to  the  current  problems  of  British 
politics  by  assailing  the  obnoxious  domestic  measures  in- 
stituted by  the  Tory  ministry  of  Lord  Liverpool,  by  con- 
demning the  English  foreign  policy  of  acquiescence  in  the 
legitimist  doctrines  of  Metternich  and  the  continental 
powers,  and  by  attacking  the  characters  of  the  ministers 
whom  he  considered  responsible  for  England's  position  at 
home  and  abroad.  The  England  of  the  time  of  Don  Juan 
was  the  country  which  Shelley  so  graphically  pictured  in  his 
Sonnet:  England  in  i8ig: — 

"An  old,  mad,  blind,  despised,  and  dying  king,  .  .   . 
Rulers  who  neither  see,  nor  feel,  nor  know. 
But  leech-like  to  their  fainting  country  cling, 
Till  they  drop,  blind  in  blood,  without  a  blow,   .  .  . 
A  people  starved  and  stabbed  in  the  un tilled  field. " 

'  Don  Juan,  IX.,  24.  ^  Don  Juan,  VIII.,  50. 


I/O  LORD  BYRON  AS   A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

It  was  a  nation  exhausted  by  war,  burdened  with  debt,  and 
seething  with  discontent.  The  Luddite  outbreaks,  the 
"Manchester  Massacre,"  which  so  excited  the  wrath  of 
Shelley,  and  the  "Cato  Street  Conspiracy"  showed  the 
temper  of  the  poor  and  disaffected  classes.  Unfortunately 
the  cabinet  saw  the  solution  of  these  difficulties  not  in 
reform  but  in  repression,  and  preferred  to  put  down  the 
uprisings  by  force  rather  than  to  remove  their  causes.  For 
these  conditions  Byron  blamed  Castlereagh,  the  Foreign 
Secretary.  Jc^^^,    "     -^^--^  ""^^ 

Byron  had  never  met  Castlereagh  and  had  never  suffered 
a  personal  injury  from  him;  his  rage,  therefore,  was  directed 
solely  at  the  statesman,  not  at  the  man.  The  Secretary  had 
long  been  detestable  to  Irish  Whigs  like  Moore'  and 
English  radicals  like  Shelley^;  it  remained  for  Byron  to 
track  him  through  life  with  venomous  hatred  and  to  pursue 
him  beyond  the  grave  with  scathing  epigrams.  For  any- 
thing comparable  aimed  at  a  man  in  high  position  we  must 
go  back  to  Marvell's  satires  on  Charles  II  and  the  Duke  of 
York  or  to  the  contemporary  satire  in  1762  on  Lord  Bute. 
Byron's  Castlereagh  has  no  virtues;  the  portrait,  like 
Gifford's  sketch  of  Peter  Pindar,  is  all  in  dark  colors.  The 
satire  is  vehement  and  personal,  without  malice  and  with- 
out pity. 

'  Many  details  of  Byron's  satire  may  be  traced  to  corresponding  pas- 
sages in  the  works  of  Moore,  whose  Fudge  Family  in  Paris  (1818)  was 
familiar  to  him,  and  whose  Fables  for  the  Holy  Alliance  (1823),  many  of 
which  were  written  while  the  two  poets  were  together  in  Venice,  was 
dedicated  to  Byron.  Moore  denounced  Castlereagh  as  a  despot,  a 
bigot,  and  a  time-server,  ridicuHng  him  especially  for  the  absurdity  of 
his  speeches,  which  were  notorious  for  their  mixed  metaphors  and  poorly 
chosen  phrasing. 

'  Shelley  in  many  short  squibs,  and  particularly  in  the  Mask  of 
Anarchy  (1819),  had  assailed  the  ministry.  He  had  compared  Castle- 
reagh and  Sidmouth,  the  Home  Secretary,  to  "two  vultures,  sick  for 
battle"  and  "two  vipers  tangled  into  one"  {Similes  for  Two  Political 
Characters  of  i8iq). 


"don  juan"  171 

Byron  also  attacked  Wellington,  but  in  manner  ironic 
and  scornful,  as  a  leader  who  had  lost  all  claim  to  the  grati- 
tude of  the  people  by  allying  himself  with  their  oppressors. 
For  George,  who  as  Regent  and  King,  had  done  nothing  to 
redeem  himself  with  his  subjects,  Byron  had  little  but  con- 
tempt. In  satirizing  these  men,  however,  Byron  was  perhaps 
less  effective  than  Moore,  over  whose  imitations  of  Castle- 
reagh's  orations  and  "best-wigged  Prince  in  Christendom, " 
people  smiled  when  Byron's  tirades  seemed  too  vicious. 

Through  the  method  commonly  called  dramatic,  or  in- 
direct, Byron  assailed  English  politicians  in  his  portrayal 
of  Lord  Henry  Amundeville,  the  statesman  who  is  "always 
a  patriot — and  sometimes  a  placeman,"  and  who  is  rep- 
resentative of  the  unemotional,  just,  yet  altogether  selfish 
British  minister.  The  type  is  drawn  with  considerable  skill 
and  with  much  less  rancor  than  would  have  been  possible 
with  Byron  ten  years  before.  Indeed  the  satire  resembles  ~ 
Dryden's  in  that  it  admits  of  a  wide  application  and  is  not 
limited  to  the  individual  described. 

bthing  in  Byron's  political  creed  redounds  more  to  his 
Credit  than  his  persistent  opposition  to  all  war  except  that 
carried  on  in  the  "defence  of  freedom,  country,  or  of  laws." 
Neglecting  the  pride  and  pomp  of  war,  he  depicted  the 
Siege  of  Ismail  with  ghastly  reaHsm,  laying  emphasis  on  the 
blood  and  carnage  of  the  battle  and  condemning  especially 
mercenary  soldiers,  "those  butchers  in  large  business." 
Though  this  attitude  towards  warfare  was  not  original 
with  him,'  Byron  spoke  out  with  a  firmness  and  pertinacity 
that  marked  him  as  far  ahead  of  his  age. 

'  Yoving  had  condemned  war  in  Satire  VII. ,  55-68 ;  Cowper  had  spoken 
against  it  in  the  Task,  in  the  lines: — 

"War  is  a  game  which,  were  their  subjects  wise, 
Kings  would  not  play  at." 
Leigh  Hunt  and  Shelley  held  exactly  Byron's  opinions,  and  expressed 
them  repeatedly. 


172  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

"^Though  Byron,  in  Don  Juan,  was  almost  entirely  a  de- 
structive critic  of  the  political  situation  in  England  and  in 
Europe,  his  ideas  were  exceedingly  influential.  In  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  had  no  definite  remedy  to  offer  for  intoler- 
able conditions,  his  daring  championship  of  oppressed  peoples 
aftected  European  thought,  not  only  during  his  lifetime, 
but  also  for  years  after  his  death.  He  was  revered  in  Greece 
as  more  than  mortal ;  he  was  an  inspiration  for  Mazzini  and 
Cavour ;  he  seemed  to  Lamartine  an  apostle  of  liberty.  It  is 
probably  to  his  insistence  on  the  rights  of  the  people  and  to 
his  sweeping  indictment  of  autocratic  rule  that  he  owes  the 
j^reatest  part  of  his  international  recognition. 

Byron's  iconoclastic  tendencies  showed  themselves  also 
in  his  attack  on  English  society,  in  which  he  aimed  to  expose 
\he  selfishness,  stupidity,  and  affectation  of  the  small  class 
yxhat  represented  the  aristocratic  circle  of  the  nation.  In 
dealing  with  this  subject  he  knew  of  w^hat  he  was  speaking, 
for  he  had  been  a  member  and  a  close  observer  of  "that 
Microcosm  on  stilts  yclept  the  Great  World. "  His  picture 
of  this  upper  class  is  humorous  and  ironic,  but  seldom  vehe- 
ment. In  a  series  of  vivid  and  often  brilliant  character 
sketches  he  delineates  the  personages  that  Juan,  Ambassa- 
dor of  Russia,  meets  in  London,  touching  cleverly  on  their 
defects  and  vices,  and  unveiling  the  sensuality,  jealousy,  and 
,^eceit  which  their  outward  decorum  covers.  Though  the 
^/''/  figures  are  types  rather  than  individuals,  they  were  in  many 
cases  suggested  by  men  and  women  whom  Byron  knew- 
Possibly  the  most  effective  satire  occurs  in  the  description 
of  the  gathering  at  Lady  Adeline's  country-seat,  Norman 
Abbey,  where  some  thirty-three  guests,  "the  Brahmins  of 
the  Ton, "  meet  at  a  fashionable  house  party.' 

'  It  is  possible  that  Byron,  in  his  description  of  this  assemblage,  was 
influenced  to  some  extent  by  T.  L.  Peacock,  the  friend  of  Shelley,  who 
had  pubhshed  Headlong  Hall  (1816)  and  Nightmare  Abbey  (1818).  In 
these  books  Peacock  had  created  a  sort  of  prose  Comedy  of  Humors  by 


^4 


DON  JUAN  173 

For  these  social  parasites  and  office  seekers  Byron  felt 
nothing  but  contempt.  His  advice  to  Juan  moving  among 
them  is: 

"Be  hypocritical,  be  cautious,  be 
Not  what  you  seem,  but  always  what  you  see/'^ 

He  describes  their  life  as  dull  and  uninteresting,  a  gay  mas- 
querade which  palls  when  all  its  delights  have  been  tried. 
Its  prudery  conceals  scandal,  treachery,  and  lust;  its  great 
vices  are  hypocrisy  and  cant — "cant  political,  cant  religious, 
cant  moral.  "^  Indeed  the  satire  of  Don  Juan,  from  Canto 
XI  to  the  point  where^Hie  "p^oenTis^rolcen  off,  is  an  attack 
on  pretence'and"~sTiam,' and  a  vindication  of  tKe  free  and 
natural  man.  Byron's  motive  may  have  been,  in  part,  the 
desire  for  revenge  on  the  circle  which  had  cast  him  out ;  but 
certainly  he  was  disgusted  with  the  narrowness  and  con- 
ventionality of  his  London  life,  and  his  newly  acqtiired 
jesting  manner  found  in  it  a  suitable  object  for  satire. 

While   Byron's   liberalism   and   democracy   were   doing 
effective  service  in  pointing  out  flaws  in  existing  political       y 
and  social  systems,  he  was  still  maintaining,  not  without^/*^ 
many   inconsistencies,    his   old   conservative   doctrines   in 
literature,  and  doggedly  insisting  on  the  virtue  of  his  literary 
commandments : 

"Thou  shalt  believe  in  Milton,  Dryden,  Pope; 
Thou  shalt  not  set  up  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Soulhey."' 

While  he  was  being  hailed  as  a  leader  of  the  romantic  schools^ 
of  poetry,  he  was  still  defending  the  principles  of  Pope, 
praising  the  work  of  Crabbe,  Rogers,  and  Campbell,  and 

forming  groups  of  curious  eccentrics,  each  one  obsessed  by  a  single 
passion  or  hobby,  and  by  giving  each  figure  a  name  suggestive  of  his 
peculiar  folly.  '  Don  Juan,  XL,  86. 

*  Letters,  v.,  542.  J  Don  Juan,  I.,  205. 


174  LORD   BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

disapproving  of  the  verses  of  the  members  of  the  Lake 
School.     He  dedicated  Don  Juan,  in  a  mocking  and  con- 
descending fashion,  to  Southey,  and  described  him  in  the 
sketch  of  the  bard  "paid  to  satirise  or  flatter"  who  sang  to 
Haidee  and  Juan  the  beautiful  lyric,  The  Isles  oj  Greece.^ 
He  ridiculed  The  Waggoner  and  Peter  Bell,  treating  Words- 
worth with  an  hostility  which  is  almost  inexplicable  in  view 
of  Byron's  indebtedness  in  Childe  Harold,  III  and  IV  to  the 
.     older  poet's  feeling  for  nature.     Only  in  minor  respects  had 
'     Byron's  position  changed ;  he  was  more  appreciative  of  Scott 
and  less  vindictive  towards  Jeffrey ;  and  he  had  found  at  least 
one  new  literary  enemy  in  the  poetaster,  William  Sotheby. 
In  general  there  was  little  for  him  to  add  to  what  he  had 
I     already  said  in  English  Bards.      His  otherwise  progressive 
u    spirit  had  not  extended  into  the  field  of  literary  criticism. 
It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  a  large  portion  of  Don  Juan 
should  be  devoted  t^jt5^Q_.siihJ££ts  iiT which  Byron  had 
always   been   deeply   interested — woman   and  love.     Nor 
is  it  at  all  remarkable,  in  view  of  his  singularly  complex  and 
variable  nature,  that  the  poem  should  contain  not  only  the 
J  exquisite  idyll  of  Haidee  but  also  line  after  line  of  cynical 
vs^tire  on  her  sex.     Though  Byron's  opinion  of  women  was 
usually  not  complimentary,  sentiment,  and  even  sentimen- 
tality of  a  certain  sort,  had  a  powerful  attraction  for  him. 
If  many  of  his  love  affairs  were  followed  and  even  accom- 
panied by  cynicism,  it  was  because  the  passion  in  such  cases 
was  sensual,  and  in  reaction,  he  went  to  the  other  extreme, 
rhe  influence  of  the  Guiccioli,  however,  manifest  in  his 
descriptions  of  Haidee  and  Aurora  Raby,  was  beneficial  to 
Byron's  character,  and  his  ideas  of  love  were  somewhat 
^altered  through  his  relations  with  her.     At  the  same  time 
the  conventional  assertions  of  woman's  inconstancy  and 
treachery  sojcommon  in  his  earlier  work  recur  frequently  in 
^Don  Juan. 

'  Don  Juan,  III.,  78-87. 


\ 


"don  juan"  175 

Love,  according  to  Byron's  philosophy,  can  exist  only 
when  it  is  free  and  untrammelled.  The  poet's  too  numerous 
amours  and  the  general  laxity  of  Italian  morals  had  joined 
in  exciting  in  him  a  prejudice  against  English  puritanism; 
while  his  own  unfortunate  marital  experience  had  convinced 
him  that ' 'Xoyc  and  Marriage  rarely  can  combine. "  ^  The 
remembrance  of  his  married  life  and  his  observation  in  the 
land  of  his  adoption  were  both  instrumental  in  forming  his 
conclusion : 

"There  's  doubtless  something  in  domestic  doings, 
Which  forms,  in  fact,  true  love's  antithesis.  "^ 

When  marriage,  then,  is  so  unalluring,  the  logical  refuge  is 
an  honest  friendship  with  a  married  lady,  "of  all  connections 
the  most  steady."^  When  Byron  does  speak  of  women 
with  apparent  respect,  it  is  always  well  to  search  for  irony 
behind.     If  he  says,  evidently  with  emotion : 

"All  who  have  loved,  or  love,  will  still  allow 
Life  has  nought  like  it.     God  is  love,  they  say, 
And  love  's  a  god,""* 

he  qualifies  his  ecstacy  elsewhere  by  asserting  that  Love  is  \ 
"the  very  God  of  evil."^      Although  he  protests   that  he  y>* 
loves  the  sex,^  he  must  add  that  they  are  deceitful,^  hypo- 
critical,* and  fickle.' 

Nothing  in  the  first  two  cantos  of  Don  Juan  was  more 
offensive  to  Hobhouse  and  the  "Utican  Senate"  to  which 
Murray  submitted  them  than  the  poorly  disguised  portrayal 
of  Lady  Byron  in  the  character  of  Donna  Inez.     Though 

^Don  Juan,  III.,  5.  ^Ibid.,  III.,  3. 

3  Ibid.,  III.,  2=>.  ^  Ibid.,  VI.,  6. 

s  Ibid.,  IL,  205.  ^  Ibid.,  Yl.,  27. 

Tlbid.,l.,i78;Xl.,36.  » Ibid.,  VI.,  14. 
9  Ibid.,  VI.,  2. 


1/6  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Byron  explicitly  disavowed  all  intention  of  satirising  his 
wife  directly,  no  one  familiar  with  the  facts  could  possibly 
have  doubted  that  this  lady  "whose  favorite  science  was 
the  mathematical,"  who  opened  her  husband's  trunks  and 
letters,  and  tried  to  prove  her  loving  lord  mad,  and  who 
acted  under  all  circumstances  like  "Morality's  prim  per- 
sonification" was  intended  to  represent  the  former  Miss 
Milbanke  and  present  Lady  Byron. 
V  /  Doubtless  there  is  something  artificial  and  affected  in 
much  of  B5n-on's  cynical  comment  on  women  and  love;  but 
if  we  are  inclined  to  distrust  this  man  of  many  amours  who 
delights  in  flaunting  his  past  before  the  ^yes  of  his  shocked 
compatriots,  we  must  remember  that  there  is  probably  no 
conscious  insincerity  in  his  words.  Byron  frequently  de- 
ludes not  only  his  readers  but  himself,  and  his  satire  on 
women,  when  it  is  not  a  kind  of  bravado,  is  merely  part  of 
his  worldly  philosophy. 

The  philosophical  conceptions  on  which  Don  Juan  rests 
are,  in  their  general  trend,  not  uncommonly  satirical;  that 
is,  they  are  destructive  rather  than  constructive,  skeptical 
rather  than  idealistic,  founded  on  doubt  rather  than  on 
faith.  It  is  the  object  of  the  poem  to  overturn  tottering 
institutions,  to  upset  traditions,  and  to  unveil  illusions. 
Byron's  attitude  is  that  so  often  taken  by  a  thorough  man 
of  the  world  who  has  tasted  pleasure  to  the  point  of  satiety, 
and  who  has  arrived  at  early  middle  age  with  his  enthusiasms 
weakened  and  his  faith  sunk  in  pessimism.  This  accovmts 
for  much  of  the  realism  in  the  poem.  Sometimes  the  poet, 
in  the  effort  to  portray  things  as  they  are,  merely  tran- 
scribes the  prose  narratives  of  others  into  verse,'  just  as 

'  In  Canto  II.,  the  entire  shipwreck  episode  is  a  symposium  of 
accounts  of  other  wrecks  taken  from  Dalzell's  Shipwrecks  and  Disasters 
at  Sea  (1812),  Remarkable  Shipwrecks  (1813),  BHgh's  j4  Narrative  of  the 
Mutiny  of  the  Bounty  (1790),  and  The  Narrative  of  the  Honourable  John 
Byron  (1768),  the  last  named  work  being  the  story  of  the  adventures  of 


"don  juan"  177 

Shakspere  borrowed  passages  from  North's  Plutarch  for 
Julius  CcEsar.  More  often  he  undertakes  to  detect  and  re- 
veal the  incongruity  between  actuality  and  pretence,  and  to 
expose  weakness  and  folly  under  its  mask  of  sham.  The 
realism  of  this  sort  closely  resembles  the  more  modern  work 
of  _Zola^  attributing  as  it  does  even  good  actions  to  low 
motives  and  degrading  deliberately  the  better  impiilses  of 
mankind.  In  Byron's  case  it  seems  to  be  the  result  partly 
of  a  wish  to  avoid  carrying  sentiment  and  romance  to  excess, 
partly  of  a  distorted  or  partial  view  of  life.  -Whate 
romance  there  is  in  Don  Juan — and  the  amount  is  not  in- 


considerable— is  invariably  followed  by  a  drop  into  bathos 
or  abiurdity^  "The  deservedly  famous  "Ave  Maria, "  ^  with 
its  exquisite  sentiment  and  melody,  is  closed  by  a  stanza 
harsh  and  grating,  which  calls  the  reader  with  a  shock  back 
to  a  lower  level.  This  juxtaposition  of  tenderness  and 
mockery,  tending  by  contrast  to  accentuate  both  moods, 
is  highly  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the  poem.  Juan's 
lament  for  Donna  Julia  is  interrupted  by  sea-sickness,' 
and  his  rhetorical  address  on  London,  "Freedom's  chosen 
station,"  is  broken  off  by  "Damn  your  eyes!  your  money 
or  your  life.  "^  Byron  never  overdoes  the  emotional 
element  in  Don  Juan;  he  draws  us  back  continually  to  the 
commonplace,  and  sometimes  to  the  mean  and  vulgar^ 
Byron's  grandfather.  His  account  of  the  siege  and  capture  of  Ismail 
in  Cantos  VII.  and  VIII.  is  based,  even,  in  minute  details,  on  Decastel- 
nau's  Essai  sur  I'histoire  ancienne  et  moderne  de  la  Nouvelle  Russie. 

'  Don  Juan,  III.,  101-109.  ^  Ibid.,  II.,  17-23. 

3  Ihid.,  XI.,  10. 

^  Byron  attributed  the  unpopularity  of  Don  Juan  with  the  ladies,  and 
particularly  with  the  Countess  Guiccioli,  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  "wish 
of  all  women  to  exalt  the  sentiment  of  the  passions,  and  to  keep  up  the 
illusion  which  is  their  empire  "  and  that  the  poem  "strips  off  this  illusion, 
and  laughs  at  that  and  most  other  things  "  {Letters,  v.,  32 1 ).  It  was  the 
opposition  of  the  Countess  which  induced  him  to  promise  to  leave  off  the 
work  at  the  fifth  canto,  a  pledge  which  he  fortunately  disregarded  after 
keeping  it  for  several  months. 


178  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

Byron's  materialistic  and  skeptical  habit  of  mind  is  often 
put  into  phraseology  that  recalls  the  "Que  sais-je?"  of 
Montaigne.  Rhetorical  disquisitions  on  the  vanity  of  hu- 
man knowledge  and  of  worldly  achievement  had  appeared 
in  Childe  Harold^;  in  Don  Juan  the  poet  dismisses  the  great 
problems  of  existence  with  a  jest: 

X"What  is  soul,  or  mind,  their  birth  and  growth. 

Is  more  than  I  know — the  deuce  take  them  both."^ 

In  the  words  of  the  British  soldier,  Johnson,  to  Juan,  we 
have,  perhaps,  a  summary  of  the  position  which  Byron 
himself  had  reached ; 

"There  are  still  many  rainbows  in  your  sky, 
/      But  mine  have  vanished.     All,  when  Life  is  new, 
y      Commence  with  feelings  warm  and  prospects  high ; 
But  Time  strips  our  illusions  of  their  hue, 
And  one  by  one  in  turn,  some  grand  mistake 
Casts  off  its  bright  skin  yearly  like  the  snake.  "^ 

As  a  corollary  to  this  recognition  of  the  futility  of  human 
endeavor,  the^ctrine  ofmutability,  so  common  in  Shelley's 
.poetry,  appears  frequently  in  Don  Juan,"*  ringing  in  the 
^  note  of  sadness  which  Byron  would  have  us  believe  was  his 
imderlying  mood.  Curiously  enough,  though  he  cjmically 
classed  together  "rum  and  true  religion"  as  calming  to  the 
spirit,^  he  was  chary  of  assailing  Christian  theology  or 
orthodox  creeds.  He  preserved  a  kind  of  respect  for  the 
Church ;  and  even  Dr.  Kennedy  was  obliged  to  admit  that  on 
religious  questions  Byron  was  a  courteous  and  fair,  as  well 

*  Childe  Harold,  II.,  7. 

*  Don  Juan,  VJ.,  22.    See  also  I.,  215;  III.,  35.  ^  Ibid.,  V .,21. 

*  Ibid.,  XI.,  82,  86.  5  Ibid.,  II.,  34. 


"don  juan"  179 

as  an  acute,  antagonist.  Perhaps  the  half-faith  which  led 
him  to  say  once  "The  trouble  is  I  do  believe"  may  account 
for  the  fact  that,  at  a  time  when  William  Hone  and  other 
satirists  were  making  the  Church  of  England  a  target  for 
their  wit,  D  on  Jumi  contained  no  reference  to  that  institution. 

Byron,  then,  refused  to  accept  any  of  the  creeds  and 
idealisms  of  his  day.  His  own  position,  however,  was 
marked  by  doubt  and  vacillation,  and  he  took  no  positive 
attitude  towards  any  of  the  great  problems  of  existence. 
Experience  led  him  to  nothing  but  uncertainty  and  inde- 
cision, with  the  result  that  he  became  content  to  destroy, 
since  he  was  imable  to  construct.  f 

This  is  no  place  for  discussing  the  fundamental  morality 
or  immorality  of  Don  Juan.  The  British  public  of  Byron's 
day,  basing  their  judgment  largely  upon  the  voluptuousness 
of  certain  love  scenes  and  upon  some  course  phrases  scat- 
tered here  and  there  through  the  poem,  charged  him  with 
"brutally  outraging  all  the  best  feeling  of  humanity." 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Byron  did  ignore  the  ordinary 
standards  of  conduct  among  average  people;  though  he 
asserted  "My  object  is  Morality,"^  no  one  knew  better 
than  he  that  he  was  constantly  running  counter  to  the 
conventional  code  of  behavior.  Nor  can  any  one  doubt, 
after  a  study  of  his  letters  to  Murray  and  Moore,  that  he 
felt  a  sardonic  glee  in  acting  as  an  agent  of  disillusion  and 
pretending  to  be  a  very  dangerous  fellow.  This  spirit  led 
him  to  employ  profanity  in  Don  Juan  until  his  friend  Hob- 
house  protested :  "Don't  swear  again — the  third  'damn.'"* 
By  assailing  many  things  that  his  time  held  sacred,  by 
calling  love  "selfish  in  its  beginning  as  its  end,"^  and  main- 
taining that  the  desire  for  money  is  "  the  only  sort  of  pleasure 
that   requites,"''  Byron  drew  upon  himself   the  charge  of 

'  Don  Juan,  XII.,  86.  '  Poetry,  VI.,  79. 

i  Don  Juan,  IX.,  73.  ^  Ibid.,  XIII..  100. 


l8o  LORD  BYRON  AS   A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

immorality.  The  poem,  however,  does  not  attempt  to 
justify  debauchery  or  to  defend  vicious  practices;  Byron  is. 
attacking^  not  virtue,  but  false  sentiment,  false_ijiealism, 
and^false  faith.  His  satiric  spirit  is  engaged  in  analyzing 
and  exposing  the  strange  contradictions  and  contrasts  in 
human  life,  in  tearing  down  what  is  sham  and  pretence  and 
fraud.  Judged  from  this  standpoint,  Don  Juan  is  pro- 
foundly moral. 

Fortunately,  in  this  poem  the  design  of  which  was  to 
exploit  the  doctrine  of  personal  freedom,  Byron  had  dis- 
covered a  medium  through  which  he  could  make  his  indi- 
viduality effective,  in  which  he  could  speak  in  the  first  person, 
leave  off  his  story  when  he  chose,  digress  and  comment  on 
current  events,  and  voice  his  every  mood  and  whim.  The 
colloquial  tone  of  the  poem  strikes  the  reader  at  once.  He 
censures  himself  in  a  jocular  way  for  letting  the  tale  slip 
forever  through  his  fingers,  and  confesses  with  mock 
humility, 

"If  I  have  any  fault,  it  is  digression."' 

The  habit  of  calling  himself  back  to  the  narrative  becomes 
almost  as  much  of  an  idiosyncrasy  as  Mr.  Kipling's  "But 
that  is  another  story.  "^  Obviously  Byron's  words  arc 
really  no  more  than  half-apologetic;  he  knew  perfectly  well 
what  he  was  doing  and  why  he  was  doing  it.  Without 
insisting  too  much  on  the  value  of  a  mathematical  estimate 
it  is  still  safe  to  say  that  Don  Jitan  is  fully  half-concerned 
with  that  sort  of  gossipy  chat  with  which  Byron's  visitors 
at  Venice  or   Pisa  were  entertained,^  and   as   the  poem/ 

'  Don  Juan,  III.,  96. 

'See  Ibid.,  I.,  9;  II.,  8;  III.,  no;  IV.,  113;  VI.,  57,  and  numerous 
other  instances. 

5  Only  in  Canto  II.  does  the  story  begin  at  once;  every  other  canto  has 
a  preliminary  disquisition.  Canto  IX.,  containing  eighty-five  stanzas, 
uses  forty-one  of  them  before  the  narrative  begins,  and  of  the  entire 


y 


"don  juan"  i8i 

lengthened,  his  tendency  was  to  neglect  the  plot  more  and 
more.     Indeed  the  justification  for  treating  Don  Juan  as  a 
satire  lies  mainly  in  these  side-remarks  in  which  Byron 
discloses  his  thoughts  and  opinions  with  so  little  reserve. 
The  digressions  in_  the  poem  are  used  principally  for  two  ^ 
purposes:  to  satirize  dircctl\-  i)coi)lc,  institutions,  or  theories; 
to  gossip  about jthe  writer  himself.     In  either  case  we  may  i 
imagine  Byron  as  a  monologist,  telling  us  what  he  has  done 
and  what  he  is  going  to  do,  what  he  has  seen  and  heard,  1 
what  he  thinks  on  current  topics,  and  illustrating  points 
here  and  there  by  a  short  anecdote  or  a  compact  maxim.  / 
In  such  a  series  of  observations,  extending  as  they  do  over  a 
number  of  years  and  written  as  they  were  under  rapidlyX 
shifting  conditions,  it  is  uncritical  to  demand  unity.     We    \  ^, 
might  as  well  expect  to  find  a  model  drama  in  a  diary.     The 
important  fact  is  that  we  have  in  these  digressions  a  con-/ 
tinuous  exposition  of  Byron's  satire  during  the  most  import-  y 
ant  years  of  his  life.  • 

The  peculiar  features  of  the  octave  stanza,  with  its  oppor-  "^j^ 
tunity  for  double  and  triple  rhymes  and  the  loose  structure  of 
its  sestette,  made  it  more  suited  to  Byron's  genius  than  the 
more  compact  and  less  flexible  heroic  couplet.  At  the  same 
time  the  concluding  couplet  of  the  octave  offered  him  a  chance 
for  brief  and  epigrammatic  expression.  In  general  it  inay^be 
said  that  no  metricaHorm  lends  jtself_jri£!!i£.xea4ily  -  tQJbhfi 
collpjjuial  style  which  Byron  preferred_than^oes^the  octave^ 

In  utilizing  this  stanza,  Byron,  accepting  the  methods  of 
Pulci  and  Casti,  allowed  himself  the  utmost  liberties  in 
rhyming  and  verse-structure.     We  have  already  seen  that 

number,  forty-six  are  clearly  made  up  of  extraneous  material.  Of  the 
ninety  stanzas  in  Canto  XL,  over  fifty  are  occupied  with  Byron's  satire 
on  Enghsh  society  and  contemporary  events.  Canto  II.  is,  of  course, 
filled  largely  with  the  shipwreck  and  the  episode  of  Haidee;  but  in 
Canto  III.,  over  forty  of  the  entire  one  hundred  and  eleven  stanzas  are 
discursive,  and  many  others  are  partly  so. 


\ 


l82  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  V^ERSE 

in  several  youthful  poems,  and,  indeed,  in  some  later  epheme- 
ral verses,  he  had  shown  a  fondness  for  remarkable  rhymes. 
^By  the  date  of  Beppo  he  had  broken  away  entirely  from  the 
"^/rigidity  of  the  Popean  theory  of  poetry,  and  had  confessed 
that  he  enjoyed  a  freer  style  of  writing: 


V  ti 


"I — take  for  rhyme,  to  hook  my  rambling  verse  on. 
The  first  that  Walker's  lexicon  unravels, 
And  when  I  can't  find  that,  I  put  a  worse  on, 
Not  caring  as  I  ought  for  critics'  cavils."' 

In  Don  Juan  this  employment  of  uncommon  rhymes  had 
become  a  genuine  art.  Byron  once  declared  to  Trelawney 
that  Swift  was  the  greatest  master  of  rhyming  in  English; 
but  Byron  is  as  superior  to  Swift  as  the  latter  is  to  Barham 
and  Browning  in  this  respect.  Indeed  Byron's  only  rival  is 
Butler,  and  there  are  many  who  would  maintain,  on  good 
grounds,  that  Byron  as  a  master  of  rhyming  is  greater  than 
the  author  of  Hudibras.  When  we  consider  the  length  of 
Don  Juan,  the  constant  demand  for  double  and  triple 
rhymes,  and  the  fact  that  Byron  seldom  repeated  himself, 
we  cannot  help  marvelling  at  the  linguistic  cleverness  which 
enabled  him  to  discover  such  unheard-of  combinations  of 
syllables  and  words.  Some  of  the  most  ext;raordinary  have 
become  almost  classic,^  e.g: — 

"But — Oh!  ye  lords  of  ladies  intellectual, 
Inform  us  truly,  have  they  not  hen-pecked  you  all?"^ 

"Since  in  a  way  that  's  rather  of  the  oddest,  he 
Became  divested  of  his  native  modesty."'* 

Naturally  in  securing  such  a  variety  of  rhymes  he  was 

'  Beppo,  52. 

*  For  other  rhymes  of  exceptional  peculiarity,  see  Don  Juan,  I.,  102; 
II.,  206;  II.,  207;  v.,  5.  i  Ibid,  I.,  22.  *  Ibid.,  II.,  I. 


"don  juan"  183 

forced  to  draw  from  many  sources.  Foreign  languages 
proved  a  rich  field,  and  he  obtained  from  them  some  striking 
examples  of  words  similar  in  sound,  sometimes  rhyming 
them  with  words  from  the  same  language,  sometimes  fitting 
them  to  English  words  and  phrases.  Some  typical  speci- 
mens are  worthy  of  quotation : 

Latin — in  medias  res,  please,  ease.  ^ 

Greek — critic  is,  poietikes.^ 

French — seat,  t^te-4-tdte,  bete.^ 

Italian — plenty,  twenty,  "mi  vien  in  mente."'' 

Spanish — Lop6,  copy.^ 

Russian — Strokenoff,  Chokenoff,  poke  enough.^ 

Byron  also  resorts  to  the  uses  of  proper  names,  borrowed 
from  many  tongues : 

Dante's — Cervantes.  ^ 

Hovel  is — Mephistophelis.* 

Tyrian — Presbyterian. ' 

Avail  us — Sardanapalus. " 

Pukes  in — Euxine.  ^  ^ 
It  may  be  added,  too,  that  he  was  seldom  over-accurate  or 
careful  in  making  his  rhymes  exact.  In  one  instance  he 
rhymes  certainty — philosophy — progeny.'^  Most  stanzas 
have  either  double  or  triple  rhymes,  but  there  are  occasional 
stanzas  in  which  all  the  rhymes  are  single.  ^^ 

In  Don  Juan  run-on  lines  are  the  rule  rather  than  th"^ 
exception.     Certain  stanzas  are  really  sentences  in  which  \ 
the  thought  moves  straight  on,  disregarding  entirely  the    \ 
ordinarv  restrictions  of  versification.^''     In  more  than  one  r 


'  Don  Juan,  I.,  6.  ^  Ibid.,  III.,  iii.  3  Ibid.,  XIII.,  94. 

^  Ibid.,  1.,  62.  sibid.,  I.,  ir.  6  Ibid.,  VII.,  15. 

7  Ibid.,  VII.,  3.  « Ibid.,  XIII.,  8.  » Ibid.,  XV.,  91. 

">  Ibid.,  II.,  207.  "  Ibid.,  V.,  5. 

"/6irf.,XIV.,  I.     See  also  I. ,25;  I.,  67;  XVI.,  4. 
'3  Ibid.,  I.,  154;  II.,  13,  22,  38. 
"''  A  characteristic  example  is  Ibid.,  IX.,  34. 


184  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

case  the  idea  is  even  carried  from  one  stanza  to  another 
without  a  pause.'  In  one  extraordinary  instance  a  word 
is  broken  at  the  end  of  a  line  and  finished  at  the  beginninj^  of 
the  next,^  following  the  example  set  by  the  Anti-Jacobin 
in  Rogero's  song  in  The  Rovers.  Like  a  public  speaker, 
Byron  at  times  neglects  coherence  in  order  to  keep  the 
thread  of  his  discourse  or  to  digress  momentarily  without 
losing  grip  on  his  audience. 

y   Much  of  the  humor  of  Don  Juan  is  due  to  the  varied 
^/employment  of  many  forms  of  verbal  wit:  puns,  plays  upon 
words,  and  odd  repetitions  and  turns  of  expression.     The 
puns   are  not   always   commendable  for   their  brilliance, 
though  they  serve  often  to  burlesque  a  serious  subject.     In 
at  least  one  stanza  Byron  uses  a  foreign  language  in  pun- 
ning. ^     In  general  it  is  noticeable  that  puns  become  more 
.  /ommon  in  the  later  cantos  of  the  poem.''      There  are  also 
w  many  curious  turns  of  expression,  comparable  only  to  some 
of  the  quips  of  Hood  and  Praed.^      Frequently,  they  are 
exceedingly  clever  in  the  suddenness  with  which  they  shift 
the  thought  and  give  the  reader  an  unexpected  surprise,  e.g.: 

"Lambo  presented,  and  one  instant  more 
Had  stopped  this  canto  and  Don  Juan's  breath."*^ 

Repetitions  of  words  or  sounds  often  convey  the  effect  of  a 
pun,  e.g.: 

"They  either  missed,  or  they  were  never  missed. 
And  added  greatly  to  the  missing  list.  "^ 

The  witty  line, 

'  Don  Juan,  I.,  123-124;  V.,  8-9;  V.,  18-19;  VIII.,  109-110. 
'Ibid.,  I.,  120.  ilbid.,  XV.,  72. 

*  Ibid.,  VI.,  64;  VII.,  21 ;  VIII.,  30;  XIII.,  75;  XIV.,  29,  63;  XVI.,  60, 
94,  98.  5  Ibid.,  I.,  34;  VI.,  47;  VIII.,  32. 

''Ibid.,  IV.,  42.  Ubid.,  VII.,  27. 


"don  juan"  185 

"But  Tom  's  no  more — and  so  no  more  of  Tom,"' 

is  an  excellent  example  of  Byron's  verbal  artistry. 

It  should  be  added  here,  also,  that  Byron  displayed  a 
singular  capacity  for  coining  maxims  and  compressing  much 
worldly  wisdom  into  a  compact  form.  Some  of  his  sayings 
have  so  far  passed  into  common  speech  that  they  are  almost 
platitudes,  e.g.: 

"There  is  no  sterner  moralist  than  pleasure.  "^ 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  this  kind  of  sententious  utterance 
in  the  form  of  a  proverb  or  an  epigram  was  very  common     [ 
with  the  Italian  burlesque  writers,  especially  with  Pulci.  ,.^^ 

Something  of  the  universality  of  Don  Juan,  of  its  appeal,' 
not  only  to  particular  countries  and  peoples,  but  also  to  the 
world  at  large,  may  be  indicated  by  the  number  of  transla- 
tions of  it  which  exist.  ^  It  appeared  in  French  in  1827,  in 
Spanish  in  1829,  in  Swedish  in  1838,  in  German  in  1839, 
in  Russian  in  1846,  in  Roumanian  in  1847,  in  Italian  in  1853, 
in  Danish  in  1854,  ^^  Polish  in  1863,  and  in  Servian  in  1888.  ,  ' 
Since  these  first  versions  appeared,  other  and  more  satis- 
factory ones  have  been  published  in  most  of  the  countries 
named.  It  was  chiefly  through  Don  Juan  that  Byron 
became,  what  Saintsbury  calls  him,  "the  sole  master  of 
young  Russia,  young  Italy,  young  Spain,  in  poetry."  In 
these  days  when  Byron's  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  people 
is  less  necessary,  when  his  opposition  to  despotism  would 

'  Don  Juan,  XL,  20. 

'Ibid.,  III.,  6.  See  also  I.,  63,  65,  72;  II.,  172,  179;  IX.,  15,  59; 
XIII.,  6,  19. 

3  Many  imitations  and  parodies  of  Don  Juan  were  printed  during 
Byron's  lifetime,  and  afterwards;  among  them  were  Canto  XVII.  of  Don 
Juan,  by  One  who  desires  to  remain  a  very  great  Unknown  (1832); 
Don  Juan  Junior,  a  Poem,  by  Byron's  Ghost  (1839);  A  Sequel  to 
Don  Juan  (1843);  The  Termination  of  the  Sixteenth  Canto  of  Lord 
Byron's  Don  Juan  (1864),  by  Harry  W.  Wetton. 


1 86  LORD   BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

find  few  tyrants  to  oppose,  and  when  his  condemnation  of 
war  has  developed  into  a  widespread  movement  for  universal 
peace,  the  powerful  impetus  which  his  satire  gave  to  the 
*  progress  of  democracy  is  likel}-  to  be  overlooked.  His 
attitude  of  defiance  furnished  an  illustrious  example  to 
struggling  nations,  and  gave  them  hope  of  better  things.' 

Within  this  limited  space  it  has  been  possible  to  touch 
only  upon  one  or  two  phases  of  the  many  which  this  poem, 
perhaps  the  greatest  in  English  since  Paradise  Lost,  presents 
to  the  reader.  Byron's  satire,  in  assuming  a  wider  scope 
and  a  greater  breadth  of  view,  in  growing  out  of  the  insular 

ylnto  the  cosmopolitan,  has  also  blended  itself  with  romance 
and  realism,  with  the  lyric,  the  descriptive,  and  the  epic 
types  of  poetry  until  it  has  created  a  new  literary  form  and 
method  suitable  only  to  a  great  genius.  His  satiric  spirit, 
,  in  assailing  not  only  individuals,  but  also  institutions,  sys- 
tems, and  theories  of  life,  in  concerning  itself  less  with 
literary  grudges  and  personal  quarrels  than  with  momentous 
questions  of  society,  in  progressing  steadily  from  the  spe- 
cific to  the  universal,  has  undergone  a  striking  evolution. 
The  tone  of  his  satire  has  become  less  formal  and  dignified, 
and  more  colloquial,  while  a  more  frequent  use  of  irony, 
burlesque,  and  verbal  wit  makes  the  poem  easier  and  more 
varied.  ,^yron  joins  mockery  with  invective,  raillery  with 
contempt,  sotKat  DonJuan,  in  retaining  certain  qualities  of 

'  Byron's  influence  upon  the  literature  of  the  nineteenth  century 
may  be  studied  in  Otto  Weddigen's  treatise  Lord  Byron's  Einfluss  auf 
die  Europaischen  Litteraturen  der  Neuzeit  and  in  Richard  Ackermann's 
Lord  Byron  (pp.  158-182).  Collins  numbers  among  his  disciples  in 
Germany,  Wilhelm  Mueller,  Heine,  Von  Platen,  Adalbert  Chamisso, 
Karl  Lebrecht,  Immermann,  and  Christian  Grabbe;  among  his  French 
imitators,  Lamartine,  Hugo,  de  la  Vigne,  and  de  Musset;  among  his 
followers  in  Russia,  Poushkin  and  Lermontoff.  To  these  should  be 
added  Giovanni  Berchet  in  Italy,  and  Jos6  de  Esprpnceda  in  Spain. 
No  other  English  poet,  except  Shakspere,  has  impressed  his  personality 
so  strongly  upon  foreign  countries. 


"don  juan"  187 

the  old  Popean  satire,  seems  to  have  tempered  and  qualified 
the  acrimony  of  English  Bards.  The  inevitable  result  of 
this  development  was  to  make  Don  Juan  a  reflection  of 
Byron's  personality  such  as  no  other  of  his  works  had  been. 
Don  Juan  is  BjTon;  and  in  this  fact  lies  the  explanation  of 
its  strength  and  weakness. 


CHAPTER  IX 
"the  vision  of  judgment" 

Byron's  Vision  of  Judgment,  printed  in  the  first  number 
of  The  Liberal,  October  I5v  1820,  was  the  cHmax  of  his  long 
quarrel  with  Southey,  the  complicated  details  of  which  have 
been  related  at  length  by  Mr.  Prothero  in  his  edition  of  the 
Letters  and  Journals. '  Byron's  hostilitv  to  Southey  was  due 
apparently  to  several  causes,  some  personal,  some  political, 
and  someJJterary.  He  believed  that  Southey  had  spread 
malicious  reports  about  the  alleged  immorality  of  his  life  in  ' 
Switzerland  with  Jane  Clermont,  Mary  Godwin,  and  Shelley ; 
he  considered  the  laureate  to  be  an  apostate  from  liberalism 
and  a  truckler  to  ansrocracy ;  and  he  had  no  patience  with 
"Insviews  on  poetry  and  his  lack  of  rcs])cct  t'or  Pope.  The 
two  men  were,  in  fact,  fundamentalh-  incompatible  in 
temperament  and  opinions,  Southey  being  firmly  convinced 
that  Byron  was  a  dissipated  and  dangerous  debauchee, 
while  Byron  thought  Southey  a  dull,  servile,  and  somewhat 
hypocritical  scribbler. 

Since  The  Vision  of  Judgment  was  Byron's  only  attempt  at 
genuine  travesty,  it  may  be  well  to  differentiate  between 
the  travesty  and" other  kindred  forms  of  satire,  all  of  which 
are  commonly  grouped  under  the  generic  heading,  burlesque. 
Broadly  speaking,  a  burlesque  is  any  literary  production" 
in  which  there  is  an  absurd  incongruity  in  the  adjustment 
of  style  to  subject  matter  or  subject  matter  to  style,  humor 

'  Letters,  vi.,  377-399. 

188 


"the  vision  of  judgment"  189 

being  excited  by  a  continual  contrast  between  what  is  high 
and  what  is  low,  what  is  exalted  and  what  is  commonplace. ' 
The  peculiar  effect  of  burlesque  is  ordinarily  dependent 
upon  its  comparison  with  some  form  of  literature  of  a  more 
serious   nature.     Of   the    subdivisions    of   burlesque,    the 
parody  aims  particularly  at  the  humorous  imitation  of  the 
style  and  manner  of  another  work,  the  original  characters 
and  incidents  being  displaced  by  incidents  of  a  more  trifling 
sort.     The  parody  has  been  a  popular  variety  of  satire,  and 
examples  of  it  may  be  discovered  in  the  productions  of  any 
sophisticated  or  critical  age.  -     The  travesty,  in  the  narrow  v/Wa;'*-*- 
.sense  of  the  term,  is  a  humorous  'imitation  of  another  work,    , 
the  subject  maffei*  fefHaming  substantiallyLt£a^ame^,b.pi"g_  \ 
made  ridiculous,  however,  by  a  grotesque  treatment  and  a     ', 
less  imaginative  style.    ^  serious  tJiem'e'is  thus  deliberately 
degraded  and  debased!    The  commonest  subjects  of  travesty 
Jiave.been  derived,  asone  might  expect,  from  mythology  or 
^fromthe    great    e]iic    poems.     Its    poijularity,    except    in 
certain^imitcd    periods,    has   ne\'cr   equal'.cil   that   of   tKe " 
paro_dy.^ 
""Considered    simply    as    a    travesty,    Byron's    Vision    is 

'  Thus  in  the  Batrachomyo7nachia  the  elevated  manner  of  epic  poetry 
is  used  in  depicting  a  warfare  between  frogs  and  mice;  while  in  Voltaire's 
La  Pucelle,  the  French  national  heroine  is  made  to  behave  like  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  streets. 

^  Some  examples  of  the  parody  are  The  Splendid  Shilling  (1701)  by 
John  Philips  (i  676-1 709) ;  The  Pipe  of  Tobacco  (1734)  by  Isaac  Hawkins 
Browne  (1760);  Probationary  Odes;  Rejected  Addresses;  and  Swinburne's 
Heptalogia. 

3  The  travesty  flourished  especially  during  the  17th  century  in  the 
work  of  Paul  Scarron  (161 0-1660)  and  his  followers  in  France,  and  of 
Charles  Cotton  (1630-1687),  John  Philips  (1631-1706),  and  Samuel 
Butler  (1612-1680)  in  England.  During  this  period  Virgil  and  Ovid 
were  popular  subjects  for  travesty.  Several  travesties  of  Homer  were 
published  in  England  during  the  i8th  century,  one  of  which,  by  Bridges, 
was  read  by  Byron  {Letters,  v.,  166). 


190  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

remarkable  in  two  respects:  first,  in  that  it  burlesques  a 
contemporary  poem,  while  most  othertravesties  ridicule 
works  of  antiquity,  or  at  least  of  established  repute;  second, 
in  that  it  has  an  intrinsic  merit  of  its  own  far  surpassing 
that  of  the  poem  which  suggested  it.  Thus  ^the  _gpnpra1 
dictum  that_a  travest'y_isvaluable  chiefly  through  the 
contrast  which  it  presents  to  some~nol51eFlnasterpiece  is 
.contradicted  byKyroh'ssatire,  whiclTis^n  Itself  an  artistic 
triumph. 

^"^outney's  Vision  of  Judgment,  of  which  Byron's  Vision 
is  a  trayesty,  was  written  in  the  author's  function  as  poet- 
laureate  shortly  after  the  death  of  George  III.  on  January 
29,  1820.  Certainly  in  many  ways  it  lent  itself  readily  to 
burlesque.^  It  was  composed  in  the  unrhymed  dactyUic 
hexameter,  a  measure  in  which  Southey  was  even  less 
successful  than  Harvey  and  Sidney  had  been.  It  was  full 
of  adulation  of  a  king,  who,  however  much  he  may  have 
been  distinguished  for  domestic  \nrtues,  was  surely,  in  his 
public  activities,  no  suitable  subject  for  encomium.  It 
was  dedicated,  moreover,  to  George  IV.  in  language  which 
seems  to  us  to-day  the  grossest  flattery^.  The  poem  itself, 
divided  into  twelve  sections,  deals  with  the  appearance  of 
the  old  King  at  the  gate  of  heaven,  his  judgment  and  beati- 
fication by  the  angels,  and  his  meeting  with  the  shades  of 
illustrious  dead — English  worthies,  mighty  figures  of  the 
Georgian  age,  and  members  of  his  own  family. 

Many  special  features  of  Southey 's  poem  were  disagree- 

'  Charles  Lamb  said  of  it  that  it  deserved  prosecution  far  more  than 
Byron's  Vision;  and  Nichol  has  styled  it  "the  most  quaintly  preposter- 
ous panegyric  ever  penned." 

'  In  his  dedication  Southey  called  George  IV.  "the  royal  and  munifi- 
cent patron  of  science,  art,  and  literature,"  and  praised  the  monarch's 
rule  as  Regent  and  King  as  an  epoch  remarkable  for  perfect  integrity  in 
the  administration  of  public  affairs  and  for  attempts  to  "mitigate  the 
evils  incident  to  our  state  of  society." 


"the  vision  of  judgment"  191 

^ble  to  Ryron.  It  was  a  vindication  and  a  eulogy  of  the 
"existing  system  of  government  m  England,  Ueorge  llt^ 
^ whom  Byron  despised,  being  described  as  arfideal  sovereign . 
Sotithey  had  made  a^ contemptuous  reference  to  what  he 
was  pleased  to  call  the  watchwords  of  Faction,  "Freedom, 
Invaded  Rights,  Corruption,  and  War,  and  Oppression,"  a 
summary  which  must  have  been  distasteful  to  a  man  who 
had  been  raising  his  voice  in  resistance  to  political  tyranny. 
Southey  had  also  carefully  omitted  Dryden  and  Pope  from 
the  list  of  great  writers  whom  George  III  met  in  heaven. 
QQ,the_whole  Southey 's  poem  was  pervaded  ..by  a  tone  of^ 
arrogance  and  self-satisfaction  which  was  fixceedinfflv  off en^/ 
^sive  to  Byron. 

Byron  haJl^egun  his  travesty  on  May  7,  1821,  and  had 
sent  it  to  Murray  from  Ravenna  on  October  4th. ^  Un- 
conscious of  the  fact  that  this  satire  was  in  Murray's  hands, 
Southey  meanwhile  had  published  his  Letter  to  the  Courier, 
January  5,  1822,  vindictively  personal,  and  containing  one 
unlucky  paragraph:  "One  word  of  advice  to  Lord  Byron 
before  I  conclude.  When  he  attacks  me  again,  let  it  be  in 
rhyme.  For  one  who  has  st)  little  command  of  himself,  it 
will  be  a  great  advantage  that  his  temper  should  be  obliged 
to  keep  tune."  When  this  Letter  came  to  Bjrron's  notice, 
his  anger  boiled  over;  he  sent  Southey  a  challenge,  which 
through  the  discretion  of  Kinnaird,  was  never  delivered^; 
and  he  decided  immediately  to  publish  his  Vision,  which  he 
had  almost  determined  to  suppress.  Murray,  however, 
delayed  the  proof,  and  on  July  3,  1822,  Byron,  irritated  by 
this  tardiness  and  enthusiastic  over  his  newly  planned 
periodical.  The  Liberal,  sent  a  letter  by  John  Hunt,^  the 
proprietor  of  the  magazine,  requesting  Murray  to  turn  the 
satire  over  to  Hunt.  In  the  first  number  of  The  Liberal^ 
then,  the  Vision  was  given  the  most  conspicuous  position, 
printed,  however,  without  the  preface,  which  Murray,  either 

■  Letters,  v.,  387.  ^  Ibid.,  vi.,  10.  .     3  Ibid.,  vi.,  93. 


192  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  I\  VERSE 

ignorantly  or  unfairly,  had  withheld  from  Hunt.  A  vigor- 
ous letter  from  Byron  reeo^Ted  the  preface,  which  was 
inserted  in  a  second  edition  of  the  periodical.'  The  con- 
sequences of  publication  somewhat  justified  Murray's 
apprehensions.  John  Hunt  was  prosecuted  by  the  Consti- 
tutional Association,  and  on  July  19,  1824,  only  three  days 
after  Byron's  body  had  been  buried  in  the  church  of  Huck- 
nall  Torkard,  was  convicted,  fined  one  hundred  pounds, 
and  compelled  to  enter  into  securities  for  five  years.  In 
fairness  to  Byron,  it  must  be  added  that  he  had  offered  to 
come  to  England  in  order  to  stand  trial  in  Hunt's  stead,  and 
had  desisted  only  when  he  found  that  such  procedure  would 
not  be  allowed.^ 

In  his  Vision,  Byron  had  at  least  four  objects  for  his 
satire.  He  wished  to  ridicuIe~Southey's  poein~By  bur- 
^squing  many  of  its  absurd  eleirients ;  he  aimed  to  proceed 
more  directly  against  Southey  by  exposing  the  weak  points 
in  his  character  an?  career;  he  desired  to  present  a  true 
picture  ot  George  III,  in  contrast  to  Southey 's  idealized 
poftraifTand  he  mT^nded  to  make  a  general  indictment  of  all 
illiberal  government  afiH  particularly  of  the  policy  then 
being  pursue3~by  the  English  Tory  party.  He  seized 
instinctively  upon  the  weaknesses  of  the  panegyric,  and 
while  preserving  the  general  plan  and  retaining  many  of  the 
characters,  freely  mocked  at  its  cant  and  smug  conceit. 
Through  a  style  purposely  grotesque  and  colloquial,  he 
turned  Southey 's_ . pompous  rhetoric  into  absurdity;  by 
touches  of  realismand  caricature  he  made  the  solemn  angels 
and^demons  laughable ;  while,  occasionally  rising  to  a  loftier 
tone  suggestive'or  the  spirit  of  Doji  Juan,  he  reasserted  his^ 
love l)f liberty  and  hatred  of  despotism. 

In  executing  his  project,  Byron  deliberately  neglected  a 
large  part  of  Southey's  Vision  and  confined  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  the  scene  at  the  trial  of  the  King.      He  began 

»  Letters,  vi.,  129.  '  Ibid.,  vi.,  159. 


t 


"the  vision  of  judgment"  193 

actually  with  the  situation  represented  in  Section  IV  of 
Southey's  poem,  omitting  all  the  preliminary  matter,  and 
ended  with  Southey's  Section  V,  avoiding  entirely  the 
meeting  of  George  with  the  English  worthies.  So  far  as 
subject  matter  is  concerned,  Byron  travestied  only  two  of 
the  twelve  divisions  of  the  earlier  work.  He  concentrated 
his  attention  on  the  judgment  of  the  King,  and  then  deserted 
formal  travesty  in  order  to  introduce  his  attack  on  Southey. 
It  was  part  of  Byron's  scheme  that  angels  and  demons, 

serious  characters  .irLjSQUthey^s  poem. should  be  made-the. 

objects  of  mirth.    3y  sl  dexterous  application  of  realism, 
he  change^jhe  Kew  Jerusalem  of  Southey  into  a_verx- 
earthly  place,  where  angels  now  and  then  sing  out  of  tune 


and  hbarseTand  where  six  angels  andtwelve  "saints  act  as 
a~busihesS'^iSe  Board  of  Clerks.  TKege  creatures  of  the 
spiritual  realm  are  very  substantial  beings,  not  at  all  im- 
mune from  mortal  infirmities  and  passions.  Saint  Peter  is 
a  dull  somnolent  personage  who  grumbles  over  the  leniency 
of  heaven's  Master  towards  earth's  kings,  and  sweats 
through  his  apostolic  skin  at  the  appalling  sight  of  Lucifer 
and  demons  pursuing  the  body  of  George  to  the  very  doors 
of  heaven.     Satan  salutes  Michael, 

"as  might  an  old  Castilian 
Poor  noble  meet  a  mushroom  rich  civilian,  " 

and  the  archangel,  in  turn,  greets  the  fallen  Lucifer  super- 
ciliously as  "my  good  old  friend."  It  is  probable  that  in 
this  practice  of  treating  with  ridicule  those  beings  who  are 
commonly  spoken  of  with  reverence,  Byron  is  imitating 
Pulci,  whose  angels  and  devils  are  also,  in  their  attributes, 
more  htmian  than  divine. 

Byron's  trial  scene,  in  which  Lucifer  and  Michael  dispute 
for  the  possession  of  George  III,  is  an  admirable  txaveatyjjf^ 
SoutHey^srepresentation of  the  same  episode.   .  The  glorified 


-yS^ 


194  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

monarch  of  Southey's  Vision  meets  in  Byron's  satire  with 
scant  courtesy  from  Lucifer,  who  acts  as  attorney  for  the 
VX  prosecution.  Lucifer  admits  the  king's  "tarnf  x-jftngc:"  and 
grants  that  he  was  a  ' '  tool  from  first  to  last " ;  but  he  charges 
him  with  having  "ji^yer  warr'd  with  Freedom  and  the  free," 
with  having  stained  his  career  with  ' '  national  and  individual 
woes,  with  having  resisted  Cath^kL_emaiicipation.  and 
.]^t£  having  lost  a  continent  to_his  country.  Wilkes  and 
Junius,  the  two  shamefaced  accusers  of  Southey's  Vision, 
now  act  in  a  different  manner.  Wilkes  scornfully  extends 
his  forgiveness  to  the  king,  and  Junius,  while  reiterating  the 
truth  of  his  original  accusations,  refuses  to  be  enlisted  as  an 
incriminating  witness.  This  section  of  the  satire  is  splen- 
didly managed.  The  whole  assault  on  the  king  tends  to 
show  him  as  more  misguided  than  criminal.     The  lines, 

"A  better  farmer  ne'er  brush'd  dew  from  lawn, 
A  worse  king  never  left  a  realm  undone!" 

create  a  kind  of  sympathy  for  George  in  that  they  portray 
"him  as  a  man  placedln  a  position  for  which  he  was  mani- 
f^tly  unfitted.  ~^^ 

Southey's  name  is  mentioned  only  once  before  the  35th 
stanza  of  Byron's  poem,  but  from  that  point  until  the  con- 
clusion the  work  deals  entirely  with  him.  These  stanzas 
constitute  what  is  probably  Byron's  happiest  effort  at 
personal  satire.  For  once  he  did  not  act  in  haste,  but  care- 
fully matured  his  project,  studied  its  execution,  and  per- 
mitted his  first  impulsive  anger  to  moderate  into  scorn. 
With  due  attention  to  craftsmanship,  he  surveyed  and 
annihilated  his  enemy,  laughing  at  him  contemptuously 
and  making  every  stroke  tell.  It  should  be  observed  too 
that  he  chose  a  method  largely  indirect  and  dramatic.  He 
did  not,  as  in  English  Bards,  merely  apply  offensive  epithets; 
rather  he  ])laced  Southey  in  a  ridiculous  situation  and  made 


j^r*'^ 


"the  vision  of  judgment"  195 

him  the  sport  of  other  characters.  The  satire,  is,  therefore, 
exceedingly  effective  since  it  allows  the  victim  no  chance 
for  a  reply. ^  By  turning  the  laugh  on  Southey,  Byron 
closed  the  controversy  by  attaining  what  is  probably  the 
most  desirable  result  of  purely  personal  satire — _the  making 
an  opponent  seemjiot  hateful  but  absurd. 

ByroiTs  poem,_ho^^^ver,   was  something  more  than  a  ''0'T^'^Zi 
cfiapter  in  the  satisfaction  of  a  private  quarrel.     Tt  is  alan  ^  aa^^^^^^j^ 
li^ral  polemic,   assailing  not  only  the  whole  system  of  \  -pj^'^ 
constituted  authority  in  England.^ut  also  tyranny  and      y 
rc]  r(,'s>i(>n    wlur  \cr    they    operate.     Xll^^  indictmcn t    of 
George  III,  which  at  times  approaches  sublimity ,^is  in  reality 
directed  against  the  entire  reactionary  policy  of  contempo- 
rary European  statesmen  and  rulers.  ^  The  doctrines  of  tlic 
revolutionary  Byron,  already  familiar  to  us  in  Don  Jiian^ 
"are  to  be  found  m  jRF"ifomc^stanzasIupbn  the  surnptuQiiaT 
^funeral  of  the  king,  a  passage  admired  by  Goethe;  respect 
^f or  monarcRyTEserf  had  died  out  nTaTnobleman  wHo  cotdd 
sayof  George 's^entombm  en  t : 

"It  seemed  the  mockery  of  hell  to  fold 
The  rottenness  of  eighty  years  in  gold. " 

With  all  its  broa(^ humor,  the  satire  is  aflame  with  indigna- 
tion. In  this  respect  the  poem  performed  an  important 
public  service.  In__glace  of  stupid  content  with  things  as 
thevjwere,  it  offered  critical^ommenl  on  existing  conditions, 
commenr"somewhat  biassed,  it  is  true,  but  nevertheless  in 
refreshing  contrast  to  the  conventional  submission  of  the^ 
great  majority  oTtEe  British  public. 

'  In  the  only  public  retort  which  Southey  undertook,  a  Letter  to  the 
Courier,  December  8,  1824,  he  could  do  little  more  than  make  charges 
of  misrepresentation,  and  repeat  his  accusation  that  Byron  was  one 
"who  played  the  monster  in  literature,  and  aimed  his  blows  at  women." 
Southey  unwittingly  had  engaged  with  too  powerful  an  antagonist  and 
only  his  want  of  a  sense  of  humor  kept  him  from  appreciating  the  fact. 


196  LORD  BYROM  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Much  of  what  has  already  been  pointed  out  with  regard 
to  the  sources  and  inspiration  of  Don  Juan  may  be  applied 
without  alteration  to  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  which  is,  as 
Byron  told  Moore,  written  "in  the  Pulci  style,  which  the 
fools  in  England  think  was  invented  by  Whistlecraft — it  is 
as  old  as  the  hills  in  Italy.  "^  The  Vision,  being  shorter, 
and  more  unified,  contains  few  digressions  which  do  not! 
bear  directly  upon  the  plot;  but  it  has  the  same  colloquial j 
and  conversational  style,  the  same  occasional  rise  into  true' 
imaginative  poetry  with  the  inevitable  following  drop  into 
the  commonplace,  the  same  fondness  for  realism,  and  the,' 
same  broad  burlesque.  ^  Hampered  as  it  is  by  the  necessityl 
of  keeping  the  story  well-knit,  Byron's  personality  has  ample ' 
opportunity  for  expression. 

It  is  probable  that  Byron's  description  of  Saint  Peter  and 
the  angels  owes  much  to  his  reading  of  Pulci.  ^  In  at  least 
one  instance  there  is  a  palpable  imitation.  Saint  Peter  in 
the  Vision,  who  was  so  terrified  by  the  approach  of  Lucifer 
that, 

"He  patter  'd  with  his  keys  at  a  great  rate, 
And  sweated  through  his  apostolic  skin,"'' 

suffered  as  did  the  same  saint  in  the  Morgante  Maggiore 
who  was  weary  with  the  dut\'  of  opening  the  celestial  gate 
for  slaughtered  Christians : 

'  Letters,  v.,  385. 

'  The  recurrence  in  the  Vision  of  many  familiar  devices  of  Don  Juan 
reminds  us  that  the  Vision  marks  Byron's  resumption  of  the  ottava 
rima,  which  he  had  left  off  on  December  27,  1820,  at  the  completion  of 
Don  Juan,  Canto  V.,  because  of  the  request  of  the  Countess  Guiccioli 
that  he  discontinue  the  work.  In  the  meantime  he  turned  his  attention 
to  the  drama,  and  Cain,  The  Two  Fosarci,  and  Sardanapalus  were  pub- 
lished in  December,  1821.  The  Vision  then  was  his  only  work  in  the 
octave  stanza  between  December  27,  1820,  and  June,  1822,  when  he 
began  Canto  VI.  of  Don  Juan. 

3  Byron  had  finished  his  translation  of  the  first  canto  of  the  Morgante 
in  February,  1820.  *  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  25; 


"the  vision  of  judgment"  197 

"Credo  che  molto  quel  giorno  s'afiana: 
E  convert^  ch'egli  abbi  buono  orecchio, 
Tanto  gridavan  quello  anime  Osanna 
Ch'eran  portate  dagli  angeli  in  cielo; 
Sicche  la  barba  gli  sudava  e  '1  pelo.  "^ 

In  employing  the  realistic  method  in  depicting  the  angels, 
Byron  seems  to  have  caught  something  of  Pulci's  grotesque 
spirit. 

One  line  of  the  Vision, 

"When  this  old,  blind,  mad,  helpless,  weak,  poor  worm," 

seems  to  imitate  the  opening  of  Shelley's  powerful  Sonnet; 
England  in  i8ig,  already  quoted, 

"An  old,  mad,  blind,  despised,  and  dying  king." 

Professor  Courthope  has  suggested  that  Byron's  Don 
Juan  owes  something  to  the  work  of  Peter  Pindar.^  The 
evidence  for  the  relationship  seems,  however,  to  be  very 
scanty.  Wolcot  never  employed  the  octave  stanza,  nor, 
indeed,  did  he  ever  show  evidences  of  true  poetic  power. 
The  two  men  were,  of  course,  alike  in  that  they  were  both 
liberals,  both  avowedly  enemies  of  George  III,  and  both  out- 
spoken in  their  dislikes.  But  Byron  seldom  except  in  parts  of 
the  Vision  used  the  method  of  broad  caricatture  so  charac- 
teristic of  Pindar.  In  the  Vision,  too,  occurs  the  only  obvious 
reference  on  Byron's  part  to  Pindar's  satire.  He  describes 
the  effect  of  Southey's  dactyls  on  George  III,  in  the  lines: 

"The  monarch,  mute  till  then,  exclaim'd,  'What!  What! 
Pye  come  again?     No  more — No  more  of  that. '"^ 

'  Morgante  Maggiore,  XXVI.,  91. 
'  History  of  English  Poetry,  v.,  250. 
3  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  92. 


198  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IX  VERSE 

The  couplet  recalls  Pindar's  delightful  imitations  of  that 
king's  eccentric  habit  of  repeating  words  and  phrases. 
However,  Byron's  style  in  bo^  Don  Jua7i  and  the  Vision 
is  drawn  more  from  Italian  than  from  English  models. 


Tie  Vision  of  Judgment  is,  if  we  exclude  Don  Juan  as 
being  more  than  satire,  the  greatest  verse-satire  that  Byron 
ever  wrote.  It  is  only  natural  then  to  compare  the  poem 
with  other  English  satires  which  have  high  rank  in  our 
literature.  A  practically  unanimous  critical  decision  has 
established  Dryden's  Absalom  ayid  Achitophel  as  occupying 
the  foremost  position  in  English  satire  before  the  time  of 
Byron.  Unquestionably  this  work  of  Dryden's  is  admir- 
able; it  is  witty,  pointed,  and  direct,  embellished  with 
masterly  character  sketches  and  almost  faultless  in  stjde. 
It  does,  however,  suffer  somewhat  from  a  lack  of  unit3^  due 
primarily  to  the  fact  that  the  narrative  element  in  the  poem 
is  subordinate  to  the  description.  .^Ton's  Visio7i,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  a  single  plot,  which  is  carefully  carried 
out  to  a  climax  and  a  conclusion.  Action  joins  with  in- 
vective and  descnption~in  forming  the  satire..  Thus  the 
two  poems,  approximately  the  same  length  if  we  consider 
onh'  Part  I  of  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  give  a  decidedly 
diflEerent  impression.  Dryden's  satire  seems  a  panorama 
of  figures,  yvhile  Bvrp^''^  ^^'^  thf>  rohereru^e  and  clash_of 
a  drama. 

Absalom  and  Achitophel  is  witt}'  but  seldom  humorous; 
while  Byronjoijis«£aricature  and  burlesque  to  wit.  The 
best  Imes  m  Dryden's  poem,  such  as: 

" Beggar' d  by  fools,  whom  still  he  found  too  late; 
He  had  his  jest,  and  they  had  his  estate," 

excite  admiration  for  the  author's  cleverness,  but  rarely 
arouse  a  smile ;  ]h^jyi^on,  on  the  contrary,  is  full  of  bufloon- 
erv.     Dryden's  sense  of  the  dignity  of  the  satirist'^s  olHce  did 


THE  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT  I99 

not: permit  him  to  lower  his  style,  and  he  never  became 
familiar  with  his  readers ;  j:he  veryjj^essence  of  B.vron's  satire 
is  its  coUQQiiiaJLcharacter . 

Dr^'den  kept  his  personality  always  in  the  background, 
while  the  egotistical  Byron  could  not  refrain  from  letting 
his  individuality  lend  fire  and  passion^tqjwhatever  hewrote. 
Tliusthe  Vision,  despite  the  fact  that  it  is  the  most  cool 


of  Bvrons  satires,  cannot  be  called  calm  and  restrained,. 
Self-control,  the  will  to  subdue  and  govern  his  impulses 
and  prejudices,  was  beyond  his  reach.  Fortunately  in  thS 
Vision  he  did  take  time  to  exercise  craftsmanship,  but  he 
never  attained  the  polished  artistry  and  firm  reserve  of 
his  predecessor.  Certainly  in  urbanity,  in  dignity,  and  in 
justice  Dryden  is  the  superior,  J ust_a^_Ji£j£  undoubtedly; 
.less  imaginative,  less  varied,  and  less  spirited  than  Byrpri._ 

The  two  satires  are,  then,  radically  different  in  their 
methods.  One  is  a  masterpiece  of  the  Latin  classical  satire 
in  English,  formal  and  regular,  and  using  the  standard 
English  couplet;  the  other  is  our  finest  example  of  the 
Italian  style  in  satire — the  mocking,  grotesque,  colloquial, 
and  humorous  manner  of  Pulci  and  Casti.  Both  are  effec- 
tive ;  but  one  is  inclined  to  surmise  that  the  purple  patches 
in  Absalom  and  Achitophel  will  outlast  the  more  perfect 
whole  of  The  Vision  of  Judgment. 

The  probable  results  of  the  publication  of  a  work  of  such 
a  sensational  character  had  been  foreseen  by  both  Murray 
and  Longman.  When  the  first  number  of  The  Liberal 
appeared  containing  not  only  The  Vision  of  Judgment  but 
also  three  epigrams  of  Byron's  on  the  death  of  Castlereagh, 
it  was  received  by  a  torrent  of  hostile  criticism  from  the 
Tory  press.  The  Literary  Gazette  for  October  19,  1822, 
called  Byron's  work  "heartless  and  beastly  ribaldry,"  and 
added  on  November  2,  that  Byron  had  contributed  to  the 
Liberal  "impiety,  vulgarity,  inhumanity,  and  heartless- 
ness. "      The    Courier    for  October  26   termed    him  "an 


200  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

unsexed  Circe,  who  gems  the  poisoned  cup  he  offers  us." 
On  the  Whig  side,  in  contrast,  Hunt's  Examiner  for  Septem- 
ber 29  spoke  of  it  as  "a  Satire  upon  the  Laiireate,  which 
contains  also  a  true  and  fearless  character  of  a  grossly 
adulated  monarch. " 

Byron  himself  described  it  to  Murray  as  "one  of  my  best 
things."^  Later  critical  opinion  has  also  tended  to  rank 
:^  it  very  high.  Goethe  called  the  verses  on  George  III  "the 
sublime  of  hatred. "  Swinburne,  himself  a  revolutionist 
but  no  partisan  of  Byron's,  exhausts  superlatives  in  com- 
menting on  it:  "This  poem — stands  alone,  not  in  Byron's 
work  only,  but  in  the  work  of  the  world.  Satire  in  earHer 
times  had  changed  her  rags  for  robes;  Juvenal  had  clothed 
with  fire,  and  Dryden  with  majesty,  that  wandering  and 
bastard  muse.  Byron  gave  her  wings  to  fly  with,  above  the 
reach  even  of  these.  Others  have  had  as  much  of  passion 
and  as  much  of  humor;  Dryden  had  perhaps  as  much  of 
both  combined.  But  here,  and  not  elsewhere,  a  third 
quality  is  apparent — the  sense  of  a  high  and  clear  imagina- 
tion.— Above  all,  the  balance  of  thought  and  passion  is 
admirable;  human  indignation  and  divine  irony  are  alike 
understood  and  expressed ;  the  piu-e  and  fiery  anger  of  men 
at  the  sight  of  wrong-doing,  the  tacit  inscrutable  derision  of 
heaven."  Nichol,  in  his  life  of  Byron,  says: — "Nowhere 
in  so  much  space,  save  in  some  of  the  prose  of  Swift,  is  there 
in  English  so  much  scathing  satire. " 

Two  figures  in  Byron's  poem  have  been  made  the  basis 
of  a  shrewd  comparison  by  Henley.  He  says:  "Byron  and 
Wordsworth  are  like  the  Lucifer  and  Michael  of  The  Vision 
of  Judgment.  Byron's  was  the  genius  of  revolt,  as  Words- 
worth's was  the  genius  of  dignified  and  useful  submission; 
Byron  preached  the  doctrine  of  private  revolution,  Words- 
worth the  dogma  of  private  apotheosis — Byron  was  the 
passionate  and  dauntless  'soldier  of  a  forlorn  hope,'  Words- 

'  Letters,  vi.,  77. 


THE  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT  201 

worth  a  kind  of  inspired  clergyman. "  Byron's  sympathies 
in  the  Vision,  as  in  Cain,  were  undoubtedly  with  Lucifer, 
the  rebel  and  exile,  and  his  poem  will  live  as  a  satiric  declara- 
tion of  the  duty  of  active  resistance  to  despotism  and 
oppression. 


CHAPTER  X 
"the  age  of  bronze"  and  "«the  blues" 

Byron's  Monody  on  the  Death  of  Sheridan,  written  at 
Diodati  on  July  17,  1816,  and  recited  in  Drury  Lane 
Theatre  on  September  7,  was  followed  by  a  period  of 
several  years  in  which  he  ceased  to  employ  the  heroic  coup- 
let in  poetry  of  any  sort.  The  reasons  for  this  temporary 
abandonment  of  what  had  been, hitherto,  a  favorite  measure, 
are  not  altogether  clear,  although  his  action  may  be  as- 
cribed, in  part,  to  his  renunciation  of  things  English  and  to 
the  influence  upon  him  of  his  study  of  the  Italians.  During 
his  residence  in  Italy,  Byron  used  many  metrical  forms: 
the  Spenserian  stanza,  ottava  rima,  terza  rima,  blank 
verse,  and  other  measures  in  some  shorter  lyrics  and 
ephemeral  verses.  Not  until  The  Age  of  Bronze,  which  he 
began  in  December,  1822,  did  he  return  to  the  heroic 
couplet  of  English  Bards. 

On  January  10,  1823,  Byron,  then  living  in  Genoa,  wrote 
a  letter  to  Leigh  Hunt,  in  which,  among  other  things,  he 
said:  "I  have  sent  to  Mrs.  S[helley],  for  the  benefit  of  being 
copied,  a  poem  of  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  lines 
length — The  Age  of  Bronze — or  Carmen  Seculare  et  Annus 
hand  Mirabilis,  with  this  Epigraph — 'Impar  Congressus 
AchiUi'."  By  way  of  description,  he  added:  "It  is  calcu- 
lated for  the  reading  part  of  the  million,  being  all  on  politics, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  and  a  review  of  the  day  in  general. — in  my 

'  Letters,  vi.,  1 60-161. 


THE  AGE  OF  BRONZE   AND   THE  BLUES      203 

early  English  Bards  style,  but  a  little  more  stilted,  and 
somewhat  too  full  of  'epithets  of  war'  and  classical  and 
historical  allusions."^  The  work  as  revised  and  completed 
contains  i8  sections  and  778  lines.  Originally  destined  for 
The  Liberal,  it  was  eventually  published  anonymously  by 
John  Hunt,  on  April  i,  1823. 

The  Age  of  Bronze  is,  then,  entirely  a  political  satire, 
intended  chiefly  as  a  counterblast  to  the  recent  stringent 
regulations  of  the  reactionary  Congress  of  Verona  (1822). 
It  comprises,  however,  other  material:  an  introductory 
passage  on  the  great  departed  leaders,  Pitt,  Fox,  and 
Bonaparte;  frequent  digressions  treating  of  the  struggles 
for  constitutional  government  then  taking  place  in  Europe ; 
and  some  lines  attacking  the  landed  proprietors  in  England 
for  their  luke-warm  opposition  to  foreign  war.  It  is,  in 
nearly  every  sense,  a  timely  poem,  although  the  note  of 
"Vanitas  Vanitatum"  sounded  in- the  early  sections  gives 
the  satire  a  universal  application. 

For  a  comprehension  of  Byron's  motives  in  writing  The 
Age  of  Bronze,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  something  of 
the  situation  in  Europe  at  the  time.  Following  the  numer- 
ous insurrections  of  1820-22  in  Spain,  Portugal,  Naples,. 
Greece,  and  the  South  American  States,  the  European 
powers,  guided  by  the  three  members  of  the  Holy  Alliance, 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  sent  delegates  to  meet  at 
Verona  on  October  20,  1822,  for  a  consideration  of  recent 
developments  in  politics.  The  leading  figure  at  the  con- 
ference was  Metternich,  the  Austrian  statesman,  although 
Francis  of  Austria,  Alexander  of  Russia,  and  Frederick 
William  of  Prussia  were  among  the  monarchs  present. 
Montmorenci,  representing  an  ultra-royalist  ministry  under 
Villiele,  was  there  to  look  after  the  interests  of  France; 
while  England,  deprived  at  the  last  moment  of  Castlereagh's 
services  by  his  suicide,  sent  Wellington.  The  gathering 
finally  resolved  itself  into  a  conclave  for  the  purpose  of 


204  LORD  BYRON  AS  A   SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

discussing  the  right  of  France  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of 
Spain,  by  restoring  Ferdinand  VII,  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Bourbon,  to  the  throne  of  which  he  had  been  deprived 
by  the  ConstitutionaHsts.  Wellington,  after  protesting 
against  the  agreement  reached  by  the  other  envoys  to  permit 
the  interference  of  France,  left  the  Congress,'  by  Canning's 
instructions,  in  December.  His  withdrawal,  however,  did 
not  affect  the  ultimate  decision  of  the  Congress  to  stamp 
out  revolt  whenever  it  assailed  the  precious  principle  of 
Legitimacy.  War  between  France  and  Spain  broke  out  in 
1823 ;  Ferdinand  VII  was  replaced  upon  his  tottering  throne ; 
and  the  despotic  policy  of  Mettemich  triumphed,  for  a  time, 
over  democracy.  Canning's  only  reply  was  to  recognize 
the  independence  of  the  rebellious  colonies  of  Spain,  and  to 
assert  the  belligerency  of  the  Greeks,  then  fighting  for  their 
liberty  against  the  Turks. 

It  is  to  the  year  which  saw  the  work  of  the  Congress  of 
Verona  that  Byron's  secondary  title.  Annus  haud  Mirabilis, 
obviously  refers.  In  a  striking  passage  in  the  beginning 
of  the  poem,  he  pays  a  tribute  to  the  mighty  dead,  contrast- 
ing, by  implication,  the  leaders  of  the  Congress  with  the 
departed  heroes:  Pitt  and  Fox,  buried  side  by  side  in  West- 
minster Abbey;  and  Napoleon, 

"Who  born  no  king,  made  monarchs  draw  his  car." 

The  summary  which  Byron  presents  of  Napoleon's  career 
is  full  of  admiration  for  the  fallen  emperor's  genius,  and  of 
resentment  at  the  indignities  which,  according  to  contem- 
porary gossip,  he  had  been  compelled  to  undergo  on  St. 
Helena.  The  man  "whose  game  was  empires  and  whose 
stakes  were  thrones"  was  forced,  says  the  poet,  to  become 
the  slave  of  "the  paltry  gaoler  and  the  prying  spy."  The 
passage  is  both  an  appreciation  and  a  judgment,  wavering, 
as  it  does,  between  sympathy  and  condemnation  for  the 
conqueror  who  burst  the  chains  of  Europe  only  to  renew. 


'the  age  of  bronze  and  the  blues    205 

"The  very  fetters  which  his  arm  broke  through. " 

The  reference  to  these  giants  of  the  past  leads  Byron  natur- 
ally to  a  glorification  of  such  liberators  as  Kosciusko,  Wash- 
ington, and  Bolivar,  and  to  a  joyful  heralding  of  revolutions 
in  Chili,  Spain,  and  Greece: 

"One  common  cause  makes  myriads  of  one  breast, 
Slaves  of  the  east,  or  helots  of  the  west; 
On  Andes'  and  on  Athos'  peaks  unfurl'd, 
The  self-same  standard  streams  o'er  either  world." 

Under  the  influence  of  this  enthusiasm  he  prophecies  a 
liberal  outburst  which  will  end  in  the  regeneration  of  Europe. 
Contrasted  with  the  optimism  of  this  aspiring  idealism 
is  Byron's  gloom  over  the  deeds  of  the  Congress  of  Verona. 
The  measures  advocated  by  this  gathering,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  reactionary  and  autocratic;  and  Byron's  description 
of  it,  tinged  with  liberal  sentiment,  is  vigorously  satirical. 
In  the  conference  headed  by  Metternich,  "  Power's  foremost 
parasite, "  he  can  see  nothing  but  a  body  of  tyrants, 

"With  ponderous  malice  swaying  to  and  fro, 
And  crushing  nations  with  a  stupid  blow." 

Many  of  the  allusions  in  Byron's  sketches  of  the  members 
recall  the  language  used  by  Moore  in  his  Fables  for  the  Holy 
Alliance.  Moore's  views  of  the  situation  in  Europe  agreed 
substantially  with  those  of  Byron.  Byron's  reference  to 
the  "coxcomb  czar," 

"The  autocrat  of  waltzes  and  of  war," 

recalls   Moore's   mention    of   that  sovereign    in   Fable  I: 

"So,  on  he  capered,  fearless  quite, 
Thinking  himself  extremely  clever, 
And  waltzed  away  with  all  his  might, 
As  if  the  Frost  would  last  forever." 


206  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

Byron  accuses  Louis  XVIII,  who  was  not  present  at  the 
Congress,  of  being  a  gourmand  and  a  hedonist, 

"A  mild  Epicurean,  form'd  at  best 
To  be  a  kind  host  and  as  good  a  guest. " 

The  same  idea  is  conveyed  in  Moore's  description  of  that 
king  as, 

"Sighing  out  a  faint  adieu 
To  truffles,  salmis,  toasted  cheese." 

Especially  painful  to  Byron  was  the  report  that  Marie 
Louise  (i 791-1849),  Napoleon's  widow,  who  had  been 
secretly  married  to  her  chamberlain,  Adam  de  Neipperg, 
had  attended  the  Congress,  and  had  become  reconciled  to 
her  first  husband's  captors.  One  section  of  the  satire  paints 
a  picture  of  her  leaning  on  the  arm  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, "yet  red  from  Waterloo,"  before  her  husband's  ashes 
have  had  time  to  chill. 

The  most  bitter,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  just 
satire  in  the  poem  is  directed  at  the  English  landed  gentry : 

"The  last  to  bid  the  cry  of  warfare  cease, 
The  first  to  make  a  malady  of  peace. " 

The  rise  in  prices  due  to  the  long-continued  war  had 
fattened  the  purses  of  the  farmers  and  land-holders  in 
England,  and  led  them  to  wish  secretly  for  the  continuance 
of  the  struggle.  Byron  attacks  severely  their  grudging 
assent  to  proposals  of  peace,  and,  in  a  succession  of  rhymes 
on  the  word  "rent,"  points  out  the  selfishness  of  their 
position.  The  diatribe  contains  some  of  Byron's  most 
passionate  lines: 

"See  these  inglorious  Cincinnati  swarm, 
Farmers  of  war,  dictators  of  the  farm ; 
Their  ploughshare  was  the  sword  in  hireling  hands. 


THE  AGE  OF  BRONZE   AND   THE  BLUES      207 

Their  fields  manured  by  gore  of  other  lands ; 
Safe  in  their  bams,  these  Sabine  tillers  sent 
Their  brethren  out  to  battle — why  ?  for  rent ! ' ' 

Although  an  occasional  touch  of  mockery  reminds  us  of 
Don  Juan,  The  Age  of  Bronze,  in  method,  shows  a  reversion 
to  the  invective  manner  of  English  Bards.  It  can  hardly  be 
said,  however,  that  this  later  satire  is  any  advance  over  the 
earlier  poem.  Its  allusions  are  now  unfamiliar  to  the  aver- 
age reader,  and  the  names  once  so  pregnant  with  meaning 
have  faded  into  dim  memories.  Although  The  Age  of 
Bronze  has  sagacity  and  practicality,  it  lacks  unity  and 
concentration.  Without  the  vehement  sweep  of  English 
Bards,  it  is  also  too  rhetorical  and  declamatory.  Most 
readers,  despite  the  flash  of  spirit  which  now  and  then  lights 
its  pages,  have  found  the  satire  dull. 

The  Blues,  so  little  deserving  of  attention  in  most  re- 
spects, is  unique  among  Byron's  satires  for  two  reasons :  it  is 
written  in  the  form  of  a  play,  and  it  employs  the  anapestic 
couplet  metre,  used  by  Anstey  and  later  by  Moore.  Byron's 
first  reference  to  it  occurs  in  a  letter  to  Murray  from 
Ravenna,  August  7,  1821:  "I  send  you  a  thing  which  I 
scratched  off  lately,  a  mere  buffoonery,  to  quiz  the  Blues, 
in  two  literary  eclogues.  If  published,  it  must  be  anony- 
mously— don't  let  my  name  out  for  the  present,  or  I  shall 
have  all  the  old  women  in  London  about  my  ears,  since  it 
sneers  at  the  solace  of  their  ancient  Spinsterstry.  "^  On 
September  20,  1821,  he  calls  it  a  "mere  buffoonery,  never 
meant  for  publication."^  Murray,  following  his  usual 
custom  with  literature  which  was  likely  to  get  him  into 
trouble,  cautiously  delayed  publication,  and  the  poem  was 
turned  over  to  John  Hunt  and  printed  in  The  Liberal,  No. 
Ill  (pages  1-24),  for  April  26,  1823.     It  was  not  attributed 

'  Letters,  v.,  338.  ^  Letters,  v.,  369. 


208  LORD  BYROX  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

to  Byron  by  contemporary  critics,  most  of  them  giving 
Leigh  Hunt  credit  for  the  authorship. 

There  is  nothing  in  Byron's  letters  to  explain  the  im- 
mediate motive  which  led  the  poet  to  scribble  a  work  so  un- 
worthy of  his  genius.  In  his  journal  kept  during  his  society 
life  in  London  there  are  several  references  to  the  "blues," 
and  later  he  made  some  uncomphmentary  allusions  to  them 
in  Beppo  and  Don  Juan.  In  a  sense  his  efforts  to  ridicule 
them  seem  to  parallel  the  attacks  of  Gifford  on  a  coterie 
equally  harmless  and  inoffensive. 

In  form  the  satire  is  a  closet  drama  in  two  acts,  each 
containing  approximatel}^  i6o  lines.  The  characters  rep- 
resented are  intended,  in  many  instances,  for  living  persons. 
Thus,  in  the  first  act,  which  takes  place  before  the  door  of  a 
lecture  room,  Ink  el,  who  is  apparently  BjTon,  converses 
with  Tracy,  who  may  be  Moore.  Within,  Scamp,  probably 
Hazlitt,  is  delivering  a  discourse  to  a  crew  of  "blues,  dandies, 
dowagers,  and  second-hand  scribes."  Among  the  subjects 
for  discussion  between  the  two  men  is  Miss  Lilac,  a  spinster, 
and  heiress,  and  a  Blue,  who  is  doubtless  a  caricature  of  Miss 
Milbanke,  the  later  Lady  Byron.  References  to  "Rene- 
gado's  Epic,"  "Botherby's  plays,"  and  "the  Old  GirVs 
Review''  indicate  that  Byron  has  returned  to  some  favorite 
subjects  for  his  satire. 

The  second  act  is  located  at  the  home  of  Lady  Bluebottle, 
who  resembles  closely  Lady  Holland,  the  well-known  Whig 
hostess  and  one  of  Byron's  friends.  Sir  Richard  Bluebottle, 
in  a  monologue,  complains  of  the  crowd  of, 

"Scribblers,  wits,  lecturers,  white,  black,  and  blue, " 

who  invade  his  house  and  who  are  provided  for  at  his 
expense.  In  the  scene  which  ensues,  Inkel  acts  as  a  sort  of 
interlocutor,  with  the  others  as  a  chorus.  Wordsworth,  the 
"poet  of  peddlers,"  is  satirized  in  the  old  fashion  of  English 
Bards  as  the  writer  who, 


THE  AGE  OF  BRONZE   AND   THE  BLUES "    209 

"Singing  of  peddlers  and  asses, 
Has  found  out  the  way  to  dispense  with  Parnassus. " 

Southey  is  referred  to  as  "Mouthy. "  Of  the  other  figures, 
Lady  Bluemont  is,  perhaps.  Lady  Beaumont,  and  Miss 
Diddle,  Lydia  White,  "the  fashionable  blue-stocking." 
When  the  party  breaks  up,  Sir  Richard  is  left  exclaiming, 

"  I  wish  all  these  people  were  damned  with  my  marriage. " 

On  May  6,  1823,  Byron  finished  Canto  XVI  of  Don  Juan. 
The  fourteen  extant  stanzas  of  Canto  XVII  are  dated  May 
8th.  Shortly  after  he  made  preparations  for  his  expedition 
to  Greece,  and,  on  July  2^,,  1823,  sailed  in  the  Hercules, 
with  Gamba  and  Trelawney,  for  Cephalonia.  From  this 
time  on,  his  work  in  poetry  practically  ceased.  He  wrote 
Moore  from  Missolonghi,  March  4,  1824:  "I  have  not  been 
quiet  in  an  Ionian  Island  but  much  occupied  with  business. 
.  .  .  Neither  have  I  continued  Don  Juan,  or  any  other 
poem."^  He  devoted  himself  to  drilling  Greek  troops, 
holding  conferences  with  leaders,  and  corresponding  with 
the  patriot  parties.  A  fever,  brought  on  by  over-exposure, 
attacked  him  on  April  nth,  on  the  19th,  he  died.  His 
remains  were  brought  to  England,  and  buried  in  the 
little  church  of  Hucknall  Torquard,  only  a  few  miles  from 
Newstead  Abbey. 

^Letters,  vi.,  336. 


CONCLUSION 

Mr.  Augustine  Birrell,  in  an  illuminating  essay  on  the 
writings  of  Pope,  brings  forward,  with  reference  to  satire,  a 
standard  of  judgment  which  merits  a  wider  application. 
"  Dr.  Johnson, "  says  Mr.  Birrell,  "is  more  to  my  mind  as  a 
sheer  satirist  than  Pope,  for  in  satire  character  tells  more 
than  in  any  other  form  of  verse.  We  want  a  personality 
behind — a  strong,  gloomy,  brooding  personality;  soured  and 
savage  if  you  will — nay,  as  sour  and  savage  as  you  like,  but 
spiteful  never.  "  Without  subscribing  unreservedly  to  Mr. 
Birrell's  preference  of  Johnson  over  Pope,  we  may  still  point 
out  that  the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  Byron's  satire,  as, 
indeed,  of  most  of  his  other  poetry,  is  the  underlining  per- 
sonality of  the  author,  too  powerful  and  aggressive  to  be 
obscured  or  hidden.  There  have  been  satirists  who,  in 
assuming  to  express  public  opinion,  have  succeeded  in 
partly  or  entirely  effacing  themselves,  and  who  have  thus 
acted  in  the  role  of  judicial  censors,  self-appointed  to  the 
task  of  voicing  the  sentiments  of  a  party.  In  the  poetry 
of  the  Anti- Jacobin,  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  detect  where 
the  work  of  one  Tory  satirist  leaves  off  and  that  of  another 
begins.  So  in  Dryden's  work  we  are  seldom  confronted 
directly  by  the  emotions  or  partialities  of  the  writer  himself; 
Absalom  and  Achitophel  gives  the  impression  of  a  cool 
impersonal  commentary  on  certain  episodes  of  history, 
prejudiced  perhaps,  but  carried  on  with  real  or  feigned 
calmness.  Byron's  satire  is  of  a  different  sort;  we  can  read 
scarcely  a  page  without  recognizing  the  potency  of  the 

210 


CONCLUSION  211 

personality  that  produced  it.  Just  as  in  Childe  Harold 
the  hero  usually  represents  BA^ron  himself  in  some  of  the 
phases  of  his  complex  individuality ;  just  as  the  Lara  and  the 
Corsair  of  his  verse  romances  and  the  Cain  and  Manfred 
of  his  dramas  are  reflections  of  the  misanthropical,  theatrical 
and  skeptical  poet ;  so,  in  the  satires,  no  matter  what  method 
he  uses,  it  is  always  Byron  who  criticises  and  assails. 

Most  of  the  characteristics  which  make  up  this  personality 
accountable  for  Byron's  satiric  spirit  have  been  brought  out 
and  discussed  in  previous  chapters.  The  most  important 
of  all,  probably,  is  the  haste  and  impetuosity  with  which  he 
was  accustomed  to  act.  In  this  respect  he  may  be  again 
contrasted  with  Dryden,  who  proceeded  to  satirize  an  enemy 
after  due  preparation,  without  apparent  agitation  or  excite- 
ment, much  as  a  surgeon  performs  a  necessary  operation. 
Even  Pope,  sensitive  and  irritable  though  he  was,  did  not 
usually  strike  when  his  temper  was  beyond  his  control. 
Byron,  on  the  other  hand,  was,  in  most  cases,  feverish  and 
impulsive ;  what  he  thought  to  be  provocation  was  followed 
at  once  by  a  blow.  He  did  not  adopt  a  position  of  unmoved 
superiority,  but,  both  too  proud  and  too  impatient  to  delay, 
sought  instinctively  to  settle  a  dispute  on  the  spot.  Except 
in  some  instances  notable  because  of  their  rarity,  Byron 
seems  to  have  had  no  understanding  of  the  method  of  toying 
with  a  prospective  victim;  he  planned  to  close  with  his 
opponent,  to  meet  him  in  a  grapple,  and  to  overwhelm  him 
by  sheer  energy  and  intrepidity. 

This  want  of  restraint  had,  of  course,  some  favorable 
results  on  his  satire;  the  work  was  indisputably  vigorous, 
effective  because  of  the  ungoverned  passion  which  sustained 
it.  At  the  same  time  this  hasty  action  was  detrimental  to 
Byron's  art,  and  accounts,  in  part,  for  the  frequent  lack  of 
subtlety  in  his  satire.  We  may  be  roused  temporarily  by 
the  fury  of  the  lines;  but  when,  in  less  enthusiastic  moods, 
we  examine  the  details,  we  miss  the  technique  and  the 


212  LORD   nVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN   VERSE 

transforming  craftsmanship  of  the  supreme  artist.  Only 
in  The  Vision  of  Judgment  did  he  devote  himself  to  devising 
means  for  gaining  his  end  in  the  most  dexterous  fashion ;  and 
the  consequence  is  that  poem  is  the  finest  of  his  satires.  In 
the  earlier  satires  we  have  Byron,  the  man,  talking  out 
spontaneously,  angrily,  unguardedly,  without  second  thought 
or  reconsideration,  like  Churchill,  a  mighty  wielder  of  the 
bludgeon  but  a  poor  master  with  the  rapier. 

Byron's  satiric  spirit  was  always  combative  rather  than 
argumentative  or  controversial.  He  preferred  to  assail 
men  rather  than  principles.  When  he  disliked  an  institu- 
tioTi  or  a  party,  his  invariable  custom  was  to  select  some  one 
as  its  representative  and  to  proceed  to  call  him  to  account. 
It  is  this  desire  to  war  with  persons  and  not  with  theories 
that  explains  his  attacks  on  Castlereagh,  whom  he  never 
knew,  but  whom  he  singled  out  as  the  embodiment  of 
England's  repressive  policy.  By  nature  Byron  was  much 
more  ready  to  quarrel  with  the  Foreign  Minister  as  an 
individual  than  he  was  to  discuss  the  prudence  and 
expediency  of  that  statesman's  measures. 

The  characteristics  so  far  mentioned  could  belong  only  to 
a  daring  and  fearless  man.  Byron  never  hesitated  to  avow 
his  ideas,  nor  did  he  ever  retract  his  invective  except  in 
cases  in  which  he  had  been  convinced  that  he  was  unjust. 
He  published  the  Lines  to  a  Lady  Weeping  under  his  own 
name  at  a  time  when  no  one  suspected  his  authorship.  For 
years  he  satirized  European  sovereigns  without  showing  the 
slightest  sign  of  trepidation.  He  espoused  unpopular 
causes,  and  often,  of  his  own  choice,  ran  close  to  danger, 
when  mere  silence  would  have  assured  him  security. 

But  despite  the  fact  that  Byron's  hatreds  were  seldom 
disguised  and  that  he  was,  on  the  whole,  open  and  manly  in 
his  satire,  there  is  another  side  to  his  nature  which  cannot  be 
left  unnoticed.  He  was,  unfortunately,  implicated  in  cer- 
tain incidents  which  leave   him  under  the  suspicion^of  a 


CONCLUSION  213 

kind  of  treachery  towards  his  friends.     His  lampoon  on 
Samuel  Rogers,  beginning, 

"Nose  and  chin  would  shame  a  knocker; 
Wrinkles  that  would  puzzle  Cocker;" 

and  ending, 

"For  his  merits,  would  you  know  'em? 
Once  he  wrote  a  pretty  Poem," 

unpublished  during  his  lifetime,  was  nevertheless  a  mali- 
cious squib  directed  at  a  man  who  had  been  one  of  his 
closest  companions.     There  can  be  no  doubt,  too,  that 
Byron's  satiric  ballad  on  Hobhouse,  "  My  boy  Hobbie,  O,"  jj^w.,^ 
sent  secretly  to  England,  was  a  true  stab  in  the  back,    1     , 
administered  to  the  man  who  had  been  his  loyal  friend.  ^    '^ 
B^'ron,  moreover,  was  not  always  accurate  in  his  charges. 
Like  most  satirists,  he  exaggerated  to  gain  his  point,  and 
made  claims  which  the  evidence  did jiot  justify.      Nor  is  it 
in  his  favor  that  he  chose  to  attack  his  wife  in  public  lam- 
poons, and  wrote  scurrilous  epigrams  upon  dead  statesmen. 

This  lack  of  delicacy  aside,  however,  it  must  be  recognized 
that  Byron's  satire  was  often  exerted  in  condemning  real 
evils,  and  that  he  performed  a  definite  service  to  humanity. 
More  than  any  other  man  of  his  time  he  insisted  on  liberty 
of  speech  and  action  in  a  period  when  reactionary  poli- 
ticians were  in  the  ascendant.  He  combated  the  perennial 
forms  of  hypocrisy  and  cant  which  appear  constantly  in 
England.  Neither  Dry  den  nor  Pope  had  been  the  consis- 
tent champion  of  great  causes;  but  Byron  so  often  employed 
his  satire  for  beneficial  purposes  that,  despite  the  vitupera- 
tion with  which  it  was  greeted  by  conservatives,  it  became  a 
powerful  influence  for  good. 

It  may  be  said,  in  general,  of  the  substance  of  Byron's 
satires,  that  he  devoted  very  little  attention  to  the  faults  and 


214  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

foibles  of  mankind,  taken  as  a  whole.  He  was  usually 
moved  to  satire  by  some  contemporary  person,  event,  or 
controversy,  and  his  criticism  was  definite,  levelled  at  some 
specific  abuse  or  evil.  In  his  youth  he  showed  a  disposition 
to  take  a  lofty  moral  stand,  and  to  preach  against  vice;  but  he 
was  ill-suited  to  didacticism,  and  soon  forsook  it  altogether. 
After  1 8 12,  his  satire  had  a  vecy  intimate  connection 
with  the  life  around  him  in  politics,  society,  and  literature, 
and  reflected  the  manners  and  moods  of  the  age.  It  is  to 
be  noted,  too,  that  Byron  was,  in  theory  at  least,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  spirit  of  his  time.  His  belief  in  liberal  doctrines 
led  him  to  resist  much  that  seemed  safe  and  solid  to  those 
in  his  own  class  of  life.  He  was  not,  in  his  later  days,  in 
sympathy  with  the  situation  in  Europe ;  and  he  died  too  soon 
to  see  his  progressive  ideas  bear  fruit  in  the  revolutions  of 
1 830  and  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832. 

In  literatiu-e  Byron  satirized,  throughout  his  career,  the 
representatives  of  the  older  romantic  school:  Wordsworth, 
Coleridge,  and  Southey.  He  did  this  mainly  on  the  ground 
that  their  principles  of  poetry  were  subversive  of  the  rules 
handed  down  by  his  avowed  masters.  Pope  and  Gifford. 
In  thus  defending  the  name  and  doctrines  of  Pope,  Byron 
was  consistent  during  his  literary  lifetime,  although  he 
himself  wandered  from  the  path  which  he  persistently 
asserted  to  be  the  only  right  one.  In  inveighing  against 
Southey,  he  was,  of  cotu-se,  animated  largely  by  personal 
spite.  For  minor  poetasters,  scribblers  who  might  have 
been  made  the  puppets  of  a  modern  Dunciad,  Byron  had 
little  but  silent  contempt.  In  literary  satire,  then,  he 
presents  the  strange  spectacle  of  a  radical  striving  desper- 
ately to  support  a  losing  cause,  and  that  cause  a  conserva- 
tive one.  Progressive  in  nearly  every  other  respect,  Byron 
persisted  in  opposing  any  attempt  to  deviate  from  the 
standard  established  by  Pope. 

Byron's  satire  on  society  was  partly  the  result  of  pique. 


CONCLUSION  215 

He  who  had  been  for  some  time  its  idol,  found  himself 
expelled  from  English  society,  and,  in  retaliation,  exposed 
its  absurdities  and  follies.  At  the  same  time  it  is  unques- 
tionable that  he  furthered  a  reform  in  ridiculing  the  cant 
and  sham  of  English  high  hfe.  It  was  in  his  last  saner  daj'-s 
that  he  wrote  the  cantos  of  Don  Juan  which  treat  of  the  all- 
pervasive  hypocrisy  of  fashionable  circles,  and  the  satire, 
even  to-day,  rings  true.  It  is  noticeable  that  he  seldom 
satirizes  fads  or  fashions,  and  that  he  rarely,  after  1812, 
attacks  private  immorality.  His  zeal  is  devoted  to  unveil- 
ing pretence,  and  to  describing  this  outwardly  brilliant 
gathering  as  it  really  is. 

Since  Byron  was  a  radical  and  a  rebel,  his  satire  was 
devoted,  so  far  as  it  concerned  itself  with  political  questions, 
to  the  glorification  of  liberty  in  all  its  forms,  and  to  the 
vigorous  denunciation  of  everybody  and  everything  that 
tended  to  block  or  discourage  progressive  movements.  In 
defence  of  freedom  and  in  resistance  to  oppression,  his  satire 
found  its  fiillest  mission  and  its  amplest  justification. 
When  continental  Europe  of  the  middle  nineteenth  century 
thought  of  Byron,  it  pictured  him  as  a  nobleman  who  had 
assailed  tyrannical  monarchy,  who  had  aided  Italy  and 
Greece  in  their  struggles  for  independence,  and  who  had 
been  willing  to  fight  for  the  sake  of  the  principles  in  which  he 
believed.  The  words  of  Byron's  political  creed  have  a  noble 
ring:  "The  king-times  are  fast  finishing.  There  will  be 
blood  shed  like  water,  and  tears  like  mist;  but  the  peoples 
will  conquer  in  the  end.  I  shall  not  live  to  see  it,  but  I 
foresee  it." 

The  broader  philosophical  satire  on  humanity  in  which  he 
was  more  and  more  inclined  to  indulge  as  he  reached  matur- 
ity is  essentially  shallow  and  cynical.  As  soon  as  Byron 
became  indefinite,  as  soon  as  he  undertook  to  preach,  he 
grew  unsatisfactory,  for  he  had  no  lesson  to  teach  beyond 
the  pessimism  of  Ecclesiastes. 


2l6  LORD  BYRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IN  VERSE 

All  these  objects  for  satire  afforded  Byron  an  opportunity 
for  expressing  some  much-needed  criticism.  The  most 
unworthy  sections  of  his  satire  are  those  devoted  to  mere 
revenge:  the  unchivalric  lines  on  Lady  Byron  and  Mrs. 
Clennont ;  the  violent  abuse  of  Southey  and  Jeffrey ;  and  the 
tiieacherogs  thrusts  at  Rogers  and  Hobhouse.  In  these 
passages.the  satirist  descends  to  the  lower  level  of  Churchill 
and  Gifford. 

It  remains  to  say  a  word  of  Byron's  methods,  a  word 
merely  of  recapitulation.  Preferring  directness  always,  he 
was  inclined  by  natvire  to  go  straight  to  his  goal,  to 
speak  his  mind  out  without  pausing  to  devise  subtle  or 
devious  plans  of  attack.  Except  in  his  Italian  satires  his 
procedtue  was  simple  enough:  he  hurled  epithets,  made 
scandalous  and  scurrilous  charges,  and  thought  out  offensive 
comments,  writing  usually  in  the  first  person  and  meeting 
his  enemies  face  to  face  in  the  good  old  way  of  his  eighteenth 
century  predecessors.  It  is,  perhaps,  unsafe,  with  Don  Juan 
and  The  Vision  of  Judgment  before  us,  to  assert  that  he  was 
incapable  of  finesse  and  cunning;  but,  for  the  most  part, 
even  in  these  poems,  he  was  more  fond  of  abuse  than  he  was 
of  innuendo  and  crafty  insinuation.  His  impetuosity  and 
irrepressible  impulsiveness,  to  which  we  have  had  occasion 
so  often  to  refer,  did  not  allow  him  to  dwell  scrupulously  on 
artistic  effects. 

He  had,  however,  two  distinct  satiric  moods:  the  one, 
savage,  stern,  and  merciless;  the  other,  mocking,  scornful, 
and  humorous.  The  one  resulted  in  invective,  the  other, 
in  ridicule  and  burlesque.  One  came  to  him  from  Juvenal, 
Pope,  and  Gifford;  the  other  he  learned  from  Moore,  Frere, 
and  the  Italians.  Thanks  to  his  versatility,  he  was  success- 
ful in  using  both ;  but  his  real  genius  was  shown  more  in  the 
contemptuous  mirth^of  The  Vision  of  Judgment  than  in  the 
fury  of  English  Bards. 

Unhke  Pope,  Byron  was  no  adept  at  framing  pointed 


CONCLUSION  217 

phrases.  The'beauty  of  Pope's  satire  lies  in  the  single  lines, 
in  the  details  and  the  finish  of  an  epithet.  Byron's  work, 
on  the  other  hand,  should  be  estimated  with  regard  to  the 
general  effect.  Few  recall  particular  lines  from  the  passage 
on  Southey  in  The  Vision  of  Judgment;  yet  every  one  re- 
members the  complete  caricature  of  the  laureate.  Pope 
manipulated  a  delicate  and  fine  stencil;  Byron  painted  on 
the  canvas  with  broad  sweeping  strokes. 

Byron  was  the  last  of  the  great  English  satirists  in  verse, 
and  he  has  had  no  imitators  who  have  been  able  to  approach 
his  unique  style  and  manner.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  his  in- 
fluence after  his  death  on  nineteenth-century  English  satire 
has  been  almost  negligible.  The  causes  of  this  decline  in 
satire  since  Byron's  day  are  not  altogether  easy  to  explain. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  accounted  for  as  accompanying  the  gen- 
eral lack  of  interest  in  poetry  of  any  sort  so  common  to-day. 
Possibly  it  may  be  due  to  the  stringency  of  the  laws  against 
iibel,  which  has  resulted  in  the  situation  described  by  Sir 
George  Trevelyan  in  his  Ladies  in  Parliament: 

"But  now  the  press  has  squeamish  grown,    and  thinks 
invective  rash: 
And  telling  hits  no  longer  lurk  'neath  asterisk  and  dash ; 
And  poets  deal  in  epithets  as  soft  as  skeins  of  silk. 
Nor  dream  of  calling  silly  lords  a  curd  of  ass's  milk." 

In  the  twentieth  century  great  political  problems  are  usually 
fought  out  in  the  newspapers  or  in  prose  pamphlets;  the 
editorials  of  our  daily  journals  take  the  place  of  satires  like 
The  Age  of  Bronze.  Doubtless,  too,  we  have  grown  some- 
what refined  in  our  sensibilities  and  fastidious  in  our  speech, 
so  that  we  shrink  from  the  cut-and-slash  method  in  poetry. 
At  any  rate  our  English  satire  since  1 830  has  inclined  toward 
raillery  and  humor,  wholly  unlike  the  ardent  vindictiveness 
of  the  men  under  the  Georges.     The  old  regime  diedjjaway 


2l8  LORD  nVRON  AS  A  SATIRIST  IX  VERSE 

with  Byron;  and  in  its  stead  we  have  had  the  polished 
cleverness  of  Praed,  the  gentle  cynicism  of  Thackeray,  the 
mild  sentimentality  of  Looker  and  Dobson.  Not  until 
very  recently  have  flashes  of  the  invective  spirit  appeared  in 
the  work  of  William  Watson  and  Rudyard  Kipling.  The 
great  issues  of  the  twentieth  century  have  stimulated  no 
powerful  English  satirist  in  verse. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  standard  edition  of  Byron's  Poetical  Works  is  that 
by  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge  in  seven  volumes  (London, 
1904),  which  contains  an  exhaustive  bibliography  of  the 
successive  editions  and  translations  of  different  poems. 
The  most  complete  collection  of  the  Letters  and  Journals  is 
that  by  Rowland  E.  Prothero  in  six  volumes  (London, 
1902).  Any  study  of  Byron  must  be  largely  based  on  these 
comprehensive  and  scholarly  works.  A  fairly  detailed  list 
of  critical  articles  on  Byron  was  compiled  by  Roden  Noel 
in  his  Life  of  Lord  Byron;  this,  however,  needs  to  be  sup- 
plemented and  revised  in  the  light  of  recent  investigation. 

The  following  list  includes  only  the  more  important 
sources  of  information  for  this  treatise. 

AcKERAiANN,  R.  Lord  Byron,  Heidelberg,    1901. 

Anti-Jacobin,  Poetry  of  the,      edited  by  Charles  Edmonds, 

London,  1890. 

Armstrong,  J.  L.  Life   of  Lord   Byron,    London, 

1858. 

Arnold,  Matthew.  Byron  (In  his  Essays  in  Criti- 

cism,  Second    Series,  Lon- 
don, 1903). 

Austin,  Alfred.  A    Vindication  of  Lord   Byron, 

London,  1869. 
Byron  and  Wordsworth  (In  his 
Bridling    of  Pegasus,  Lon- 
don, 1910.) 
219 


220 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Bell,  John. 
Beyle,   Henri. 
Bleibtreu,  K. 

Blessington,  Lady. 

Brandes,  G. 

Brydges,  Sir  Samuel  E. 


Buratti,  p. 
Castelar,  E. 

Casti,  G.  B. 


Chasles,  V.  E.  P. 


Chesterton,   G.   K. 


Churchill,  C. 


Fugitive  Poetry,  London,   1790. 

18  vols,  in  9. 
Lord  Byron   en    Italic    (In    his 

Racine,  Paris,  1854). 
Byron    der    Uebermensch,    Sein 

Leben    und    sein    Dichten, 

Jena,  1897. 
Conversations  with  Lord  Byron, 

London,  1834. 
Main  Currents  in  igth  Century 

Literature,     London,     1905. 
Letters    on    the    Character    and 

Poetical     Genius     of    Lord 

Byron,  London,  1824. 
An   Impartial   Portrait  oj  Lord 

Byron,    as    a    Poet    and   a 

Man,  Paris,  1825. 
Poesie,  Venezia,    1864.     2  vols. 
Life   of  Lord  Byron,  and  Other 

Sketches,  London,  1875. 
Gli  Animali  Parlanti,     Londra, 

1803.     2  Tome. 
Novelle,  Parigi,  1804.     3  volumi. 
//      Poema     Tartaro,     Milano, 

1871. 
Vie  et  influence  de  Byron  sur  soil 

epoque   (In  his  Etudes  sur 

r  Angleterre  au  XIX  sihcle, 

1850.) 

The    Optimism    of    Byron     (In 
his  Twelve  Types,     London, 

1903-) 
Poetical    Works,    Boston,    1854. 
(Ed.  by  Tooke.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


221 


Clinton,  G. 
Collins,  J.  C. 
courthope,  w.  j. 

Dallas,  R.  C. 
Edgcumbe,  R. 

ElCHLER,  A. 


Elze,    Karl. 

ESTEVE. 

Frere,  J.  H. 

FUHRMAN. 

Galt,  John. 
Gamba,  p. 

GiFFORD,    W. 

Gilfillan,  G. 
GuiccioLi,  Countess. 


Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writings 

of  Lord  Byron,  London,  1825. 
Studies  in  Poetry  and  Criticism, 

London,  1905. 
The  Liberal  Movement  in  English 

Literature,    London,     1885. 
A    History    of   English   Poetry, 

London,  1895-1910.    6  vols. 
Recollections  of  the  Life  of  Lord 

Byron,  1808-1814,  London, 

1824. 
Byron,    the    Last   Phase,    New 

Fork,  1909. 
John     Hookham     Frere:     Sein 

Leben     und    seine     Werke; 

Sein     Einfliiss     auf     Lord 

Byron,   Wien  und  Leipsig, 

1905- 
Lord     Byron:     A     Biography, 

London,  1872. 
Byron  et  le  Romantisme  frangais, 

Paris,  1907. 
Works,  London,   1872.     2   vols. 
Die  Belesenheit  desjungen  Byron. 
The  Life  of  Lord  Byron,    Lon- 
don, 1830. 
A    Narrative    of    Lord    Byron's 

Last  Journey  to  Greece,  Lon. 

don,  1825. 
The   Baviad   and    the    Mceviad, 

London,  1797. 
A    Second    Gallery    of   Literary 

Portraits,  London,  1850. 
Lord  Byron  juge  par  les  temoins 

de  sa  vie,     Paris,  1868. 


222 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Hancock,  A.  E. 

Hannay,  J. 

Hazlitt,  W. 
Hunt,  L. 

Jack,  A.  A. 
Jeaffreson,  J.  C. 
Kennedy,  James. 


koeppel,  e. 
Medwin,  T. 

Moore,  Thomas. 


More,  P.  E. 

NiCHOL,  J. 

Parry,  W. 
Pope,  A. 


The   French  Revolution  and  the 

English  Poets,  New   York, 

1899. 
Satire   and    Satirists,     London, 

1854. 
The  Spirit  of  the  Age,   London, 

1825. 
Lord    Byron,    and    Some  of  his 

Contemporaries,       London, 

1828.     2    vols. 
Poetry     and      Prose,     London, 

1912. 
The  Real  Lord  Byron,   Leipsig, 

1883.     3  vols. 
Conversations  on  Religion,  with 

Lord     Byron     and     Others, 

London,  1830. 
Lord  Byron,  Berlin,  1903. 
Journal  of  the  Conversations  of 

Lord  Byron,  London,  1824. 
Letters    and    Journals    of   Lord 

Byron,   with  Notices  of  his 

Life,  London,  1830. 
Memoirs,    Journal,   and    Corre- 
spondence,   London,    1856. 

8  vols. 
The  Wholesome  Revival  of  Byron. 

(In  the  Atlantic.     Vol.  82, 

December,  1898.) 
Byron,     London,    1908.     (Eng. 

Men  of  Letters  Series.) 
The  Last  Days  of  Lord  Byron, 

London,  1825. 
Poetical  Works,    London,  1895. 

10  vols. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


223 


Previte-Orton,  C.  W. 

PULCI,    L. 

Pyre,  J.  F.  A. 

ROEVER. 

Stephen,  L. 
Swinburne,  A.  C. 

Trelawney,  E.  J. 

Trent,  W.  P. 
Tucker,  S.  M. 
Weddigen,  0. 


Political  Satire  in  English  Poetry, 

Cambridge,    1910. 
Morgante    Maggiore,     Venezia, 

1784. 
Byron    in   our    Day.     (In    the 

Atlantic,     Vol.    99,    April, 

1907.) 
Lord    Byrons     Gedanken    ueber 

Alexander     Pope's      Dicht- 

kunst,  Hanover,  1886. 
Byron   (In  Diet,   of  Nat  Biog., 

Vol.    viii.,    pp.     132-155). 
Essays    and    Studies,     London, 

1875. 
Miscellanies,  London,   1886. 
Recollections  of  the  Last  Days  of 

Shelley    and    Byron,     Lon- 
don, 1858. 
Records  of  Shelley,  Byron,  and 

the  Author,  London,   1878. 
The    Byron    Revival.     (In    the 

Forum,    Vol.    26,    October, 

1898.) 
Verse   Satire   in   England  before 

the  Renaissance,  New  York, 

1906. 
Lord   Byrons   Einfluss   auf  die 

europaischen  Litteraturen  der 

Neuzeit,  Hannover,  1884. 


INDEX 

Ackermann,  Richard,  186  (note) 
Age  of  Bronze,  The,  4,  6,  8,  53,  202-207. 
Anstey,  Christopher,  30,  32,  40. 
Anti- Jacobin,  30-33,  37,  59,  61,  64,  85 

Barrett,  E.  S.,  36,  40 

Becher,  Rev.  J.  T.,  39,  45,  48 

Beppo,  6,  7,  8,  93, 113-127, 129-131, 144, 145, 161, 163, 182 

Berni,  Francesco,  8, 118  (note),  121  (note),  127, 144, 155-157, 161 

Birrell,  Augustine,  Mr.,  103,  209 

Blackwood' s  Magazine,  51 

Blessington,  Countess  of,  115, 164. 

Blues,  The,  207-209 

Bowles,  Rev.  Samuel,  62-63 

Brougham,  Lord,  48,  167 

Burns,  Robert,  29 

Butler,  Samuel,  11,  16,  122,  182 

Butler,  Dr.,  40-41 

Buratti,  157-159 

Byron,  Lady,  107-110,  175-176 

Byron,  Lord:  place  among  English  satirists,  7;  divisions  of  his  satire, 
8-9;  early  satiric  verse,  39-47;  position  in  1798;  travels  in  Spain 
and  Greece,  77;  life  in  London,  94;  his  political  beliefs,  95,  143, 
168-172,  204;  life  in  Italy,  115-116;  death  and  burial,  208;  influence, 
185,  186  (note) 

Canning,  George,  31,  32,  34,  35,  40,  203,  204 

Carlisle,  Lord,  43  (note),  66-67 

Casti,  Giambattista,  8, 117, 118-119, 127-144, 161, 162, 181 

Castlereagh,  Lord,  102,  170-171 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  14 

Childe  Harold,  6,  7,  77,  78,  iio-iii,  122,  136  (note) 

Churchill,   Charles,  3,   21-22,   25;  Apology  Addressed  to  the   Critical 

Reviewers,  56-58;  Prophecy  of  Famine,  66,  88-89 
Clarke,  Hewson,  67 

225 


226  INDEX 

Clermont,  Mrs.,  108-109,  215 

Cleveland,  John,  1 1 ,  88 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  60-62,  63,  84,  173 

Collins,  J.  C,  127  (note),  1^9  (note) 

Corsair,  The,  97 

Courthope,  W.  J.,  6,  29 

Co  wper,  22,66 

Crabbe,  22-23 

Critical  Review,  56-57  ^^ 

Curse  of  Minerva,  The,  7,  77,  86-92  \ 

Dallas,  R.  C,  49, 68,  77,  78 
Devil's  Drive,  The,  93,  101-102 

Don  Juan,  6,  8,  93,  114,  116,  127,  128,  133-144,  147-154,  158,  159,  161, 
ty    162,163-187,198,208,216 

Dryden,  3,  7,  11-13,  14,  15,   17,  37,  52;  comparison  of  Absalom  and 
A chitophel  and  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  198-199;  210,  211,  212 

Edinburgh  Review,  48-58 

English  Bards,  and  Scotch  Reviewers,  7-8,  33,  36,  37,  38,  47,  48-76,  79, 
92,95, 112, 162, 167, 169, 174, 187,201,215 

Forteguerri,  160 

Frere,  J.H.,31, 118  (note);  The  Monks,  and  the  Giants,  117-127 

Fugitive  Pieces,  39, 41 ,  42 

George  III,  34,  94,  190. 191, 192, I93. I95, 196, 200 

George  IV,  94, 96-98, 100, 105, 171 

Giaour,  The,  7, 94 

GiflFord,  8,  10,  23-25,  29,  31,  40,  42,  47,  50,  53,  54,  65;  comparison  of 

Giffordand  Byron,  71-73;  74,  85,93,  "3>  I70,  213 
Goethe,  195 

Goldsmith,  20,  30  (note) 
Guiccioli,  Countess,  116,  174,  177  (note) 

Hamilton,  Lady  Anne,  35-36,  40;  Epics  of  the  Ton,  59-60,  61,  64 

Henley,  W.E.,  200 

Hints  from  Horace,  8,  77-85-  92 

Hobhouse,  J.  C,  77,  78,  I79.  216 

Hodgson,  P.,  57,  59,  73.  78 

Holland,  Lord,  58, 68,  106  (note) 

Hunt,  Leigh,  68,  69, 95,  98,  ii5,  146,  202 

Ireland,  W.H.,  36 


INDEX  227 

Jeaffreson,  75, 98 
Jeffrey, 45, 50, 55,  56, 84,  216 
Johnson,  Samuel,  21 
Juvenal,  21,  51 

Lamb,  Lady  Caroline,  107 

Lewis,  M.  G.,  63,  64 

Liberal,  The,  98,  148,  188,  191,  199,  201,  206 

Ltnes  to  a  Lady  Weeping,  97,  98 

Mant,  Richard,  36-37,  40;  his  Sinipliciad,  59,  60,  61,  62 

Mathias,  T.  J.,  19  (note),  25-26,  29,  33,  37,  40;  his  Pursuits  oj  Litera- 
ture, 26  (note);  118 

Moore,  Thomas,  i,  30,  32,  36,  38;  attacked  in  English  Bards,  63-64; 
74;  his  quarrel  and  reconciliation  with  Byron,  95-97;  98,  99,  105,  ill 

Murray,  John,  78,97,  102,  109,  iii,  115,  118,  147,  154  (note),  164,  165, 
166  (note),  175,  179,  191,  200 

Ottava  rima,  9,  114,  120-121  (note);  Byron's  management  of ,  122,  161, 
181, 202 

Parody,  5,  32,  189  and  note 

Peacock,  T.  L.,  172  (note) 

Pigot,  Elizabeth,  44,  48 

Pope,  5,  7,  10;  work  as  a  satirist,  13-16;  18,  22,  33,  36,  37,  40,  41,  53, 
54.  55.  59.  62,  63;  comparison  of  Byron  and  Pope,  69-72;  74;  Essay 
on -Criticism,  81-82;  Epistle  to  Lord  Bathurst,  89;  93,  113,  173,  191,  214 

Pulci,  Luigi,  8,  117,  120,  144;  life,  and  influence  on  Byron,  145-155;  156, 
161, 196-197,  199 

Rejected  Addresses,  28  (note),  106-107  and  note 
Rolliad,  27-28,  32,  40 

Satire,  2-5 

Scott,  Walter,  Sir,  5,  59-60  and  note,  98 

Shelley,  38,  171  (note),  178,  188 

Sketch,  A,  93,  108-109 

Southey,  60-62,  84,  173;  Byron's  quarrel  with  him,  188,  ff.;  his  Vision 

of  Judgment,  190-191 
Swift,  16-17, 27<  122, 182 
Swinburne,  200 

Travesty,  5,  189  and  note 
Trelawney,  17  (note),  115, 182 


228  INDEX 

Vision  of  Judgment,  The, 7,  S,i\^,  116,  162,  188-201 

Waliz,  The,  6,  7,  8,  65, 93, 103-106 

Windsor  Poetics,  93, 99 

Wordsworth,  34, 36,  60-62,  71,  84, 174,  208 

Young,  16,  20,  28 


VITA 

Claude  Moore  Fuess,  the  author  of  this  dissertation, 
was  bom  at  Waterville,  New  York,  January  12,  1885,  and 
prepared  for  college  at  the  Waterville  High  School,  graduat- 
ing in  1 901.  He  took  the  full  course  of  four  years  at 
Amherst  College,  graduating  with  the  degree  of  B.  A.  in 
1905.  During  1 905-1 907,  he  was  in  residence  at  Columbia 
University,  where  he  took  courses  in  English  and  Compara- 
tive Literature  under  Professors  G.  R.  Carpenter,  W.  A. 
Neilson,  W.  P.  Trent,  J.  B.  Fletcher,  J.  E.  Spingam, 
Brander  Matthews,  J.  W.  Cunliffe,  G.  P.  Krapp,  and  W.  W. 
Lawrence.  He  received  the  degree  of  M.  A.  from  Columbia 
in  1906,  and  in  1906-7  was  University  Fellow  in  English 
and  Editor  of  the  English  Graduate  Record.  In  1907-8,  he 
was  Head  of  the  Department  of  English  in  George  School, 
George  School,  Pa.,  and  from  1908-10  was  Instructor  in 
English  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass.,  studying 
abroad  at  Oxford  during  the  summer  of  1910.  After  a 
third  year  of  residence  at  Columbia  in  1910-11,  he  returned 
to  Phillips  Academy,  where  he  is  at  present  Instructor 
in  English. 


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